In the fall of 1998, Brooke Lierman '01 became a victim of rape. The following year, Lierman brought charges against her alleged attacker, which resulted in a hearing by the Committee on Standards.
The COS found the student guilty of rape, and sentenced him to a two-term suspension.
To Lierman, the relative lenience of the penalty imposed came as an unsettling disappointment.
"If you can fail two classes in a row and get three terms off, and if someone is found guilty of rape and only gets two terms off, then somewhere, your priorities are out of whack," she said.
Lierman believes that there should be a minimum length of suspension for any student found guilty of rape -- and two terms, she said, is not nearly enough.
Since the rape occurred, Lierman has spoken at various events designed to heighten awareness of sexual assault. Most recently, she was among the many protestors stationed outside Parkhurst earlier this month, demanding changes -- including a set standard of punishment for those found guilty of sexual assault -- to various aspects of life at Dartmouth.
During the protests, demonstrators were met by Senior Associate Dean of the College Dan Nelson -- a member of the COS panel that heard Lierman's case. After a tense exchange with some students, Nelson took the stage and said, "I want to welcome you here and thank you for your commitment."
But his statement sparked doubt in at least one demonstrator. "I just don't know how someone like Brooke can come up here and tell the story that she did and you [Nelson] can say you support us," former Student Life Initiative steering committee member Hillary Miller '02 said.
In an interesting turn of events, Nelson himself questioned whether the COS had been "too lenient" in dealing with sexual assault cases in an opinion article printed in yesterday's issue of The Dartmouth.
Strict standards for disciplinary action are not a new phenomenon for the College. Students failing to reach minimum academic performance standards are, by policy, suspended from the College for three terms.
For academic honor principle violations, while the range of sanctions applied depend on the specifics of each case, a one-year honor suspension is seen as "a general rule of thumb," according to Dean of the College James Larimore.
Larimore explained that over the years, there have been enough honor code violations to constitute certain, informal "guideposts" for determining disciplinary actions in such cases.
Neither specific standards nor "guideposts" exist for cases of sexual assault.
This is partly due to the fact that instances of sexual assault fall under the wider scope of conduct violations -- all of which, according to Committee on Standards Chair Marcia Kelly, are considered individually.
Larimore said that a greater hindrance to standardized courses of disciplinary action in regard to sexual assault cases is their comparative infrequency.
"The number of cases heard is still relatively small." he said. "[This] does make it more difficult for a committee to construct a sense of what an average case might look like -- in part because there really is no such thing as an average sexual abuse case."
During the 1999-2000 academic year, the COS heard four cases of alleged sexual abuse. The penalties levied in these cases ranged from a two-term suspension to permanent separation from the College.
According to Larimore, at the COS's annual meeting this May, he, Kelly, Nelson and other COS members will explore the possibility of creating "general rules of thumb" -- similar to those in place for academic honor violations -- for sexual assault cases.
Larimore emphasized, however, that in the event of a sexual assault, it is important to consider more than just what disciplinary actions should be taken against the perpetrator.
"The impact of an incident of sexual abuse or sexual violence on the person that survives that act can be devastating," he said. "What the committee decides and imposes as a sanction is only one part of a larger set of concerns and issues affecting the individual person who survives such an incident."
