<p>Not sure what you’re implying. I’ve read College Confidential for about a year, but didn’t join until now.
Happened to take my child on a college visit to UVa - he liked it, so I started reading the UVa forum when this story started breaking. As someone with a daughter in college as well as a son, I was shocked and outraged at the original accusation and at how the story has developed.</p>
<p>Regardless of how it turns out, I don’t think my child is going to apply to UVa - mainly because although it’s a public and compatible with the REA programs he is likely to apply to, my son has better safeties. However, between this and the debacle surrounding the firing/re-hiring of their President, it doesn’t seem that well run a place.</p>
<p>And personally I’m very angered by the idea that a story like this would be set in stone. </p>
<p>I’ve been trying to recall the specifics of what happened to me, and I absolutely know that there are details that I would have said at the outset that may have morphed or changed shape in my head over the years. If you’d asked me right after it happened, I could have told you the TV program that was playing in the background, whether I had shoes on or didn’t, what time of night it was, what he was wearing, how long it all lasted, how many times specific things occurred, what I did immediately afterwards, how long it took me to work up the nerve to tell my parents, how I told them, etc. I couldn’t tell you those details today, though I might guess at some of them - and I might be wrong. That doesn’t make me a liar, and again, what I experienced was nothing compared to the kind of trauma we are talking about. </p>
<p>Liz Seccuro is a very vocal acivist who had numerous conversations with Erdeley. She suffered rape by William Beebe, a Phi Psi 30 years ago. There was not enough evidence to prosecute anyone else . </p>
<p>I posted the Volokh piece about defamation a few thousand posts ago. The conclusion was that if the defamed group is small enough then it is identifiable. So she accuses 9 men of attacking her. If there are 20 or 30 men in the frat at that time, that’s a significant percentage of accused and it could be basis for a defamation claim for libel. Similarly if the anthropology class was small and there was one who was in Phi Psi, that person would have claim for defamation. The lifeguards she knew also may have a claim. Particularly once she said ‘maybe he wasn’t a member of Phi Psi’, because apparently there were no Phi Psi lifeguards. So now that makes all the lifeguards suspects.</p>
<p>Safety might be a bit too strong a word, but my son is a very strong candidate. I have two others at HYPSM, so I’ve been through the drill before.</p>
<p>She reported her rape, but her rapist was never even indicted for the crime until, 22 years later, he admitted it. He was convicted and ended up serving six months in a minimum security jail.</p>
<p>“I was on spring break and I was astonished watching the many young girls not of college age prancing around the beach at night without any parents in sight chasing the boys and yelling things that in my day would have had the word “slut” attached to your name.”</p>
<p>And what word would you attach to the name of the boys yelling those same sorts of things at the girls?</p>
<p>What word would you use to describe a girl who screams at a boy they don’t know: wanna have sex? Oh, and yes there are male sluts too. However I would think that mothers and fathers would not want their sons or daughters to behave in such a way but maybe I’m wrong, but I would blow a gasket.</p>
<p>I’m trying to understand why you are singling out girls who do this, and not boys. Are you saying that it’s mostly girls who exhibit this behavior, and only a few boys? Therefore it’s worthwhile talking about girls prancing around yelling sexual invitations, but not boys prancing around yelling the same sort of things, because hardly any boys do it?</p>
<p>Thank you for the link to Ms. Securro’s story.</p>
<p>The one thing that stands out, and that I am most upset about, is when she found out from the police that they have jurisdiction over ALL fraternity houses at UVA.</p>
<p>Methinks this whole thing is turning into a class action lawsuit - a college that lies to its students about its power to decide right and wrong. And likely not the only college.</p>
<p>And oh - not of college age girls acting that way? Parent, anyone? Then again, there were very active girls in 8th grade in my middle school, active with multiple partners, so I am not too shocked.</p>
<p>Most parents who’ve been on CC for a while would say that schools like UVa are safeties for nobody, and it’s prudent to go a notch lower to get a true safety. We’ve seen, over and over, new posters to CC whose oldest child is applying to college and who don’t understand the college landscape. As it turns out, al2simon is not a newbie to the process. Welcome, al2simon.</p>
<p>Why is it so hard to understand that we are having a difficult time believing Jackie’s story but firmly can believe the accounts of other rape victims? I think that poor girl has plenty of issues to deal with right now. It is very sad. But we did not seek her out, she (initially) agreed to the interview for the article. Certainly, the “journalist” and RS bear responsibility -Most of it now for making this all public.</p>
<p>Thanks Cardinal Fang. I’ve found College Confidential to be a great resource provided you go through the effort to separate the signal from the noise. The regular parent posters also seem to be very helpful (the student posters are a more motley lot though). It’s nice that you guys all take the time to help people navigate the college process and to give some life advice too.</p>
<p>@bengalmom - I don’t download my personal values when it comes to sexuality on others. People vary to great degrees in their sexual preferences and conduct. </p>
<p>My observation is that men have been enjoying recreational sex now for quite some time. The fact that some women might find it appealing as well does not surprise me - I think we can all agree that in general sex is a good thing. What I might do or advise my own D is irrelevant to those girls on the beach. Their sexuality is their own and I won’t judge them. My way works for me but perhaps their path works for them.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean at all to be insulting, al2simon. It’s just that we see posters who say, “My oldest child is a great student. She’s applying to Harvard, Yale and Stanford, and UVa is her safety,” and we think, whoa, even wonderfully qualified students could get rejected from all four of those schools.</p>
<p>“From what I’ve read, Erdeley’s other stories are now being investigated for their truthfulness. Ironically, she was a classmate of another journalist, Stephen Glass, who had similar fabrication problems. U Penn if I’m not mistaken.”</p>
<p>Yup. Maybe the author is the one who’s disturbed. Shattered glass seemed to be an obsession in the piece and coincidentally is the title of the disgraced classmates story. This is really getting weird. Narrative journalism’s a big issue these days and it works better when no one is being accused of criminal conduct such as in her story about the Catholic runaway turned madam mom with a dad who was killed by the mob before she got her GED and put herself through Rutgers working as a hooker prior to marrying a rich businessman and busied herself anonymously reporting suspected child molesters to the cops in her spare time. It’s possible, I guess, but at least there’s no allegation against anyone in there to cause questions about accuracy. And, it’s a pretty good read if you like that sort of thing.</p>
<p>“As you say, northwesty, it looked like student panels were reluctant to convict other students, even when the described evidence looked strong and convincing. It may be a kind of jury nullification: students on the panel may think the accused was guilty, but also think that expulsion is too strong a penalty for the offense.”</p>
<p>That is what happens. Because of the expulsion-only punishment, the college Honor Court at UVA does not catch and punish cheaters very well. </p>
<p>So there should be no surprise that college courts (at UVA and elsewhere) handling rape allegations (a much more serious situation) do a bad job too. </p>
<p>The way to stop colleges from mis-handling rape allegations is…for the federal government to stop requiring colleges to handle rape allegations. Duh!!! </p>
<p>This issue at my alma mater is making me sound like a Tea Party nut job. But the mis-guided feds are the root cause on this. </p>