Former Student Sues Wesleyan Over Campus Rape

A former student of Wesleyan University in Connecticut filed suit yesterday, according to news reports, alleging that the University violated Title IX by failing to protect her from being locked in a room and raped at a party at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, which allegedly had a known reputation as a "rape factory."  Wesleyan's response to her reporting of the rape was also indifferent, the complaint alleges, in several ways: the R.A. she reported it to the next day did not call university officials or the police; when the victim reported it to university officials the day after that, she was told she could go to the hospital, but received no offer of transportation or accompaniment; nor did they did not contact a rape counselor or offer any kind of services.

The complaint also suggests that the university failed to protect her from retaliatory harassment she experienced after having reported the incident.  In particular, there were protests outside her dormitory after the university revoked Beta's status the following year, and her identity became known.  The plaintiff eventually transferred to another college.  The assailant, a non-student guest of a Beta Theta Pi member, was convicted of assault and is serving a 15-month sentence.