Late last week the University of Connecticut announced it had settled the lawsuit brought by five current and former female students. The women were accusing the university of mishandling their respective sexual assault cases. The $1.3 million settlement brings with it a no guilt finding and the withdrawal of the names of several of the women who had also filed a complaint with OCR. There are more names on that complaint, which continues to be investigated.
The settlement will be divided among the five women with each receiving a different amount. What we found interesting was that the bulk of the money, $900,000, will go to the last woman who joined the lawsuit, a former student who was a first-year student at the time of her assault. She was also a goalie on the hockey team who was dismissed from the team after reporting she was raped by a member of the men's hockey team. Her coach, who left the team at the end of this past season, said she was not "stable enough" to play on the team. The university has said it was the goalie's knee injury that lead to her release from the team. Obviously the amounts each woman will receive were carefully negotiated, but we have not heard the legal rationale for the large sum awarded to her specifically. It could be because of the loss of the opportunity to play college hockey, though there is no obvious monetary value there and the university did refund her tuition and expenses from the time she spent at UConn.
