A University of Oregon student reported being assaulted in one of the residence halls around 1 a.m. Sunday morning. The victim was walking down the east stairwell in Living Learning Center South when two other individuals attacked him.

The student was reportedly approached from behind, hit in the back of the head, and held down by one attacker while the other kicked him. The attackers did not attempt to take any belongings from the victim, and continued down the stairwell. Both suspects were described as white, college-age males, but no further description was provided.

UOPD’s communications director and public information officer, Kelly McIver, posted a crime alert to the UO’s police website this afternoon and issued the alert via UO webmail as well.

In responding to future incidents, McIver urges students to be quick to report these types of “person crimes,” such as assault and robbery. “For person crimes, we certainly encourage people to make reports immediately because we can do a lot more… if we know about it at the time.”

McIver says the survivor has not been hospitalized and there are no serious injuries. The survivor was not a resident of LLC. The incident is still under investigation and anyone with information should report to the UOPD at 541-346-2919. Any updates to the incident will be posted to the UOPD website.

The Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity is tucked away in a corner on East 12th Avenue. From the Duck Store, walk west down 13th Avenue until you reach Hilyard. Turn right toward Sacred Heart Medical Center. Carefully use the crosswalk on the three-lane stretch of Hilyard Street sandwiched between the hospital’s many buildings. About 100 feet ahead, turn right into the courtyard. Enter 677 E. 12th Ave. Go up four floors. Go down the hallway. Take the first door on your… left? Right?

Inside the reception area is a small desk. Pamphlets are arranged on the wall nearby. The office is a maze of cubicles and private offices with views of the hospital and cars driving down Hilyard.

Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity moved its offices  from Oregon Hall about two years ago. The department works with campus staff and faculty to help guide students to the right place.

“It is a concern for us that being off campus, it is possible a student could get discouraged from coming in,” office director Penelope Daugherty said.

The difficulty in locating the department is a symptom of a larger problem: the University of Oregon’s sexual assault reporting process is complex and may be so much so that it deters students from seeking help. The methods for informing students about their options are undergoing improvement but the system remains something of an enigma.

On the other side of campus, the Office of the Dean of Students welcomes students with couches and a TV. A walk down the colorful hallway leads to the cushy couch in the office of Associate Dean Chicora Martin. Her rainbow decorated room overlooks the glimmering pools of the Jacqua Center.

The couches in Martin’s building are where most students sit when they begin the reporting process. Sexual assault or harassment by a UO employee gets reported to Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity, but assault or harassment by a student gets reported to the dean of students.

The UO’s student misconduct process follows a series of steps. First the survivor reports to the counseling center, the health center, dean of students or to any staff or faculty member. The student then meets with Sexual Violence Response and Support Services Coordinator Renae DeSautel, who connects the student with support services like counseling and explains the process.

The office then asks whether the student would like to allege a misconduct report. If so, the office conducts an investigation, which is later sent to the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards. Once ready, the case can be heard in one of two ways: a panel hearing or an administrative conference. The accused student may choose.

Once the case has been heard, sanctions are given to a student found responsible of misconduct. Sanctions range from a reflection paper at one end to expulsion at the most extreme end.

The dean of students’ website provides a flowchart outlining the reporting process. However, interpreting it is easier said than done. Psychology GTF Carly Smith has witnessed how frustrating the process can be for students. In a class exercise, she divided students into groups, giving each group a different school’s sexual assault reporting process to examine using web searches. The only group that gave up, Smith said, was the one trying to decipher UO’s process. 

The flowchart is not intended to direct students but merely to document the protocol. Martin says the chart is not as accessible as it can be. But DeSautel is available 24/7 to assist students with just that — confusion about the process and where to go. The Office of the Dean of Students also has drop-in hours from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

Martin says UO’s system mirrors those of other public universities. UC Berkeley, for example, follows a comparable protocol for responding to incidents of sexual assault, and the sanctions are essentially the same.

The process is meant to be educational.

“Our process is not criminal,” Martin said. “Our goal with student conduct is to ensure the safety and security of our campus, and then to educate our students.”

The DOS makes sure to inform students of their options — those who want a criminal case should seek the police or an outside lawyer.

The reporting process as a whole has been fine-tuned in recent years. According to Martin, the university has not recently conducted any general studies or surveys to assess whether the process serves students in the best way possible.

Lack of assessments aside, DeSautel is impressed with UO’s system. She worked at both UC Berkeley and Southern Oregon University and thinks that in comparison, UO has a better response system for cases of sexual assault.

“We take reports seriously. The university is as transparent as it can be,” DeSautel said.

Regardless, Martin understands why students might be in the dark about reporting. First-year students receive sexual assault education through the presentation by Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team at orientation and the online modules. But what students learn at orientation is not necessarily going to stick with them through their college years.

“Juniors or seniors, or grad students who came and have been here a while, maybe didn’t get (the SWAT) information when they were first-year students,” Martin said.

The UO is about to launch a campaign aimed at clarifying the reporting process and improving the services the university offers. The campaign will include a 24-hour sexual assault hotline and a comprehensive, easy-to-use website for support and answers about the process.

The university has also updated its online sexual assault education program required for incoming freshman. As of this past fall, the school now uses a program called Haven. Similar to its predecessor, Sexual Assault EDU, Haven complements the orientation SWAT presentation, educating students about the dynamics of sexual violence and the resources available to them in the event of an incident. Sexual Violence Prevention and Education Director Abigail Leeder is also exploring other prevention education modules.

This fall, the UO began mandating its online training program for all staff and faculty. The program — which has been around for several years — includes how to respond to student or employee cases of sexual harassment and assault. Daugherty says many of the staff and faculty have availed themselves of that resource.

Despite the trainings, mandatory reporters may not necessarily know where to direct students in the case of an incident.

“Can I attest to the fact they are all paying attention and aware?” Daugherty said. “I couldn’t do that.”

Complications or issues with the process could potentially have adverse effects. UO psychology professor Jennifer Freyd has championed the research about what happens when institutions fail to treat survivors of trauma properly.

“The lack of good process, the lack of prevention and the problematic ways people have been treated when they’ve tried to report — what we’ve measured is that’s what is harmful to people,” Freyd said.

Freyd and Smith found that procedural issues may lead to serious psychological distress.

“From a research standpoint … the difficulty of navigating the process is not lost on students,” Smith said.

Freyd sees easy fixes to minimize potential psychological distress.

“If each victim had someone to advocate for them, to help them navigate the system, to help them at each stage — one consistent person — it would buffer a lot of the problem,” Freyd said.

An LTD bus on the 81 route got stuck on Harris Street and 23rd Avenue in the slushy ice coating Eugene’s city streets this morning, sometime around 8:30 a.m.

The bus was slanted into the curb with its front sticking out into the road. LTD Operation Supervisor Shawn Mercer said he and the bus driver had spent over an hour trying to get the bus to gain traction. They tried shoveling and kitty litter, pouring it on the ground just in front of the rear tires, before the bus finally moved — and then halted mid-street, its wheels spinning in the ice.

Several other LTD busses have encountered road trouble this morning as well, according the the LTD Twitter feed. Just this morning, the Tweets read, inbound 43 became stuck on Fairfield, along with 52 on Arrowhead, inbound 66 on Chad Drive and Shadowview, and 36 on 11th Street.

Mercer described today’s conditions as “treacherous.” The outlook for today’s for LTD transportation includes closing down at least the 81 route until the roads are safer.

An LTD bus on the 81 route got stuck on Harris Street and 23rd Avenue in the slushy ice coating Eugene’s city streets this morning, sometime around 8:30 a.m.

The bus was slanted into the curb with its front sticking out into the road. LTD Operation Supervisor Shawn Mercer said he and the bus driver had spent over an hour trying to get the bus to gain traction. They tried shoveling and kitty litter, pouring it on the ground just in front of the rear tires, before the bus finally moved — and then halted mid-street, its wheels spinning in the ice.

Several other LTD busses have encountered road trouble this morning as well, according the the LTD Twitter feed. Just this morning, the Tweets read, inbound 43 became stuck on Fairfield, along with 52 on Arrowhead, inbound 66 on Chad Drive and Shadowview, and 36 on 11th Street.

Mercer described today’s conditions as “treacherous.” The outlook for today’s for LTD transportation includes closing down at least the 81 route until the roads are safer.

An LTD bus driver with his bus at 23rd and Harris.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo) and Carolyn Maloney (D-New York), along with 37 additional members of Congress, sent a letter to the Office of Civil Rights within the U.S. Department of Education last Wednesday.

The letter urged the Department of Education to take more action in requiring campuses to confront the issues surrounding sexual assault. According to the letter, the National Institute of Justice finds that 63 percent of universities in our nation still fail to meet their legal obligations, even over 40 years after Title IX was passed, according to Speier’s official website.

Rep. Maloney and Sen. Bob Casey introduced a similar act last year, according to the Clery Center website, called the Campus Sexual Violence and Elimination Act of 2013 as an amendment to the Clery Act. The Save Act requires most institutions of higher education to provide extensive preventative education and awareness programs about sexual misconduct and similar offenses.

The letter lays out various requests. “We urge (the Department of Education) to be more transparent about its own investigations and enforcement actions against colleges and universities regarding campus sexual harassment and sexual assault,” wrote Maloney and Speier in the letter. They urge the Department to push for  a centralized database of all universities’ records. As of today, they argue, students and their families have a difficult time accessing information on a school’s safety, including the campus history of Title IX-related compliance issues, sexual assault incidents, statistics and policies.

The representatives also seek to require schools to conduct surveys and exit interviews regarding campus safety. These surveys could provide a more accurate picture of the scope of sexual assault on campuses, giving students a better idea of how safe their school is.

In addition, the Congressional letter requests that Title IX be expanded to include protections for transgender students and address issues of same-sex violence on campuses. It cites a study by the American Association of University Women, claiming that over 70 percent of LGBT students are confronted with some form of sexual harassment while in college.

Speier hosted a Google conference on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by a handful of individuals pushing the envelope on women’s rights in institutions. In her conference, Speier pointed out that not every institution is doing well to comply with Title IX. Some universities still lack both Title IX coordinators and surveys to assess institutions’ safety climates.

According to Speier in the Google conference, annual exit surveys are now required in the military. Mandating similar surveys at universities “would take nothing more than an amendment to Title IX, and that’s something I’m very willing and interested in pursuing,” said Speier in the Google conference. “We could get this into a bill this year and make it law next year if we’re successful.”

President Barack Obama announced Wednesday his concern with the prevalence of sexual assault and violence on college campuses nationwide, according to the Associated Press. Obama reported the issue’s importance in our nation today: One in five females are assaulted in their lifetimes, while only one in eight report any crimes.

The White House Council on Women and Girls states that college-age girls are the most at risk for assault.

Obama spoke out on the issue both as a president and father of two daughters nearing college age, said the AP. He called on young people, men and women both, to begin seeing sexual assault and violence as unacceptable. ”And they’re going to have to summon the bravery to stand up and say so,” Obama said, according to AP, “especially when the social pressure to keep quiet or to go along can be very intense.”

Obama assigned a task force comprised of administration officials to identify solutions and recommendations for institutions. Potential suggestions may include a more public disclosure of universities’ sexual assault reports records, following the Clery Act, as well as suggestions for universities in responding to the crime. In addition, the task force may suggest better partnership between federal agencies to hold accountable any schools that fail to properly address the issue.

Some legislation has already been enacted to address the issue of sexual assault: Title IX prohibits discrimination of institutions on the basis of gender, while the Clery Act requires institutions to disclose their campuses’ crime statistics each year. The Violence Against Women Act offers recourse and protections for women across the nation.

The White House report also stressed its intention to pursue more prosecutions and arrests. One of the largest problems that contribute to a lack of prosecution is police bias and inadequate training on handling sexual assault situations.

Paul Shang, the dean of students and assistant vice president for student affairs, is glad that the president has made the issue into a national priority. He hopes, however, that Obama’s task force, responsible for outlining recommendations for universities nationwide, will have adequate representation from higher education.

“People who make recommendations have often not been on a college campus,” Shang said. Such representatives on the task force may lack the perspective and experience unique to working in higher education.

Shang believes University of Oregon is already doing well to meet its obligations in responding to the issue, both legally and on behalf of students’ needs. “I think the University of Oregon is very conversant and aware,” Shang said, “and will continue to develop thorough and innovative ways to work with students in response to their experiences.”

Follow Hannah Golden on Twitter @HannahGoldenUO

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series exploring sexual assault on the University of Oregon campus.

It’s 9:45 p.m. She just got to the bar with her roommates. She had a couple of shots back home and needs a way home tonight.

10:30. She’s making conversation with a guy from class. He’s friendly, maybe a bit too much. She’s not keen on him, but her roommates are indisposed with other guys and she’s been on her own for the last 15 minutes.

11:50. She spots a friend, there with her boyfriend, and takes the opportunity to brush the guy from class off politely. He keeps touching her hair and shoulders and it feels uncomfortable. He’s probably just drunk, she tells herself. He doesn’t know he’s being creepy. She plans to move over to her friend, hoping he’ll get the message that she’s not interested.

12:30 a.m. Her roommates stumble over, flanked by guys. They say they’re leaving, that they’ll be out late tonight. But here are the keys. Make sure to take Safe Ride. She’s already dialing the number for a pick-up. The guy from earlier overhears and offers to drive her home, which she politely declines.

1:45. The Safe Ride responder said he’d be there in less than an hour, but the bar is about to close and there’s no sign of him. People are leaving. She calls her roommates. Nobody answers. The guy puts his arm around her, insisting she let him drive her home.

1:50. She contemplates walking alone. The walk is at least 20 minutes in heels and she left her pepper spray at home. Neither option feels safe, but what can she do?

…

UO’s Director of Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Abigail Leeder believes society as a whole still lacks understanding about how sexual assault affects us. The University of Oregon campus is no exception.

“Everyone hears, ‘Oh, sexual assault, that’s such an awful thing,’” she said. “But they don’t relate it at all to their lives and their experiences.”

BB Beltran, executive director of Sexual Assault Support Services of Lane County, says most people don’t talk about sexual assault unless they or someone close to them experiences it.

Several factors influence whether survivors choose to report. They may feel at fault or be familiar with the perpetrator. One of the biggest reasons, Beltran says, is that survivors don’t think that anyone believes their accounts.

Say your female friend approaches you with what happened the other night. She never consented to sleeping with a guy and thinks she might’ve been assaulted. Naturally, you’ll want to know what she did, if anything provoked it, the specifics. You ask if she drank, if she can remember the details clearly. “Are you sure you were really assaulted?” Yes, she admits, she blacked out. No, she doesn’t remember everything clearly.

Your friend might come to believe it never happened. Or if it did, that it’s okay. She might believe she’s to blame for her own assault.

Your response may impact how your friend copes. Beltran explains that when survivors tell friends or a confidant about an incident, they’re often questioned about their own behaviors, which does more harm than good.

This response – often well intentioned – is called victim blaming. It’s only one of several ways rape culture manifests in society.

Beltran points to rape culture in everyday conversation. “The worst insult (a person) can give a man is he’s a girl, a sissy, anatomical parts of a woman’s body,” she said. Jokes about rape constitute another classic example. “Did you see the game last night? They totally raped them,” is an all-too-common use of “rape” as slang for “overpower” and “defeat.”

Some UO students are confronting the issue. Alpha Chi Omega Chapter President Emily Bol says the chapter works with Women’s Space, a local resource for preventing domestic violence against women for its philanthropy mission. The sorority also hosts workshops and guest speakers to educate its members about sexual assault and consent. Bol is confident that any of the sisters would know how to respond supportively should a survivor tell them about an incident.

In addition, Bol says every sorority has some sort of risk management position and emergency plan in the case of an incident with one of their members.

Ducks outside of Fraternity and Sorority Life have brought the issue to light as well. UO students Samantha Stendal and Aaron Blanton gained national attention last year when their YouTube video “A Needed Response” went viral. The video shows a woman passed out on a couch and a man next to her talking to the camera, telling viewers what he intends to do with the vulnerable guest. He gives her a blanket and some water, turns to the camera and says, “Real men treat women with respect.”

Blanton feels a deep concern for the safety of college girls in our culture and believes the issue still needs addressing. Turning women into “goals” dehumanizes them and “lays the social groundwork for these kinds of crimes to happen,” he said.

Many institutions are also taking sexual assault seriously. The Office of the Dean of Students has positions dedicated to sexual assault support, prevention and education. Renae DeSautel, UO’s Sexual Violence Response and Support Services coordinator, assists survivors in everything from academic intervention to counseling referrals.

Since the enactment of the Jeanne Clery Act in 1990, colleges and universities receiving federal funding are mandated to report annual crime statistics, including sexual assault, on and around campuses. Clery Act reports of a few Pac-12 schools give context as to how UO lines up. In 2011, UC Berkeley had 23 verified reports of forcible sexual assaults on campus, while USC had 14. By comparison, UO appears to be doing a bang-up job of combatting sexual assault  with only eight forcible sexual assaults over the same time period.

But for the percentage of students assaulted, the UO doesn’t boast a great record. In a compiled a list of 2012 Clery Act reports for all four-year public schools in the U.S. that have campus residential facilities, the UO had 17 offenses for roughly 25,000 students — among schools of 20,000 students or higher, UO had the fifth-highest rate of forcible sex offenses on campus in the country. That’s a 13 place jump from 18th in 2011.

But an upward trend in reports doesn’t always mean an increase in incidents. In fact, Beltran finds the recent spike in UO’s reports encouraging. Having high numbers “doesn’t necessarily mean it’s less safe. It means that more survivors are coming forward.”

DeSautel thinks underreporting may impact the high statistic. The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network claims that only 40 percent of sexual assaults are reported. There are also other common misconceptions surrounding sexual assault and rape: RAINN reports that 10 percent of victims are male.

DeSautel says UO isn’t any better or worse than any other college when it comes to safety.

But Blanton believes Ducks are not universally as conscious to the issue. “I doubt most Ducks have ever heard the term ‘rape culture.’ Statistically, I probably met over 100 survivors at UO. Of those, three have confided in me … None of them reported it.”

Even DeSautel is unsure.

“I don’t know if we have an atmosphere on our campus where every survivor would feel safe in sharing what happened to them,” she said.

…

It’s 11:40 am. the next day. She’s on the couch with a cup of tea. She made it home safely. Her roommate comes in after her night out, her face a mix of confusion and concern.

“Hey, can I talk to you?” says her roommate. “I think something might’ve happened last night.”

“Of course you can tell me,” she says. “I’m here to help.”