The College Fix

Notre Dame has been blatantly misleading its students for years on where they should report allegations of sexual assault, by its own admission.

The newly elected prosecutor of St. Joseph County told the South Bend Tribune that the county Special Victims Unit should be involved in reported assaults on campus, but the school itself told students last month:

“Students are strongly encouraged to consider reporting a sexual assault to the University and/or the police. Notre Dame Security Police is a duly authorized police agency in the state of Indiana, and is the law enforcement agency with which to file a report for any incident that occurred on Notre Dame property,” Erin Hoffmann Harding, the vice president for student affairs, wrote in the email.

Its student handbook also tells students to go to campus police.

Prosecutor Ken Cotter’s statements “are a departure from years of practice and advice to students about reporting procedures and the role of campus police,” and Notre Dame is the lone holdout among colleges in the county in snubbing offers from the SVU, the Tribune said:

Connie Adams, director of the Belles Against Violence Office at Saint Mary’s [College], said she had never before heard that victims of assault could seek out help from the SVU rather than Notre Dame police.

“That’s definitely information we’ll be distributing to students so they know their options,” said Adams, who is a member of Notre Dame’s Committee on Sexual Assault Prevention.

Does this sound like Notre Dame really thinks rape is a crime?

In an agreement among ND and local officials, the countywide Metro Homicide Unit would investigate a murder on campus, and the county Fatal Alcohol Crash Team would investigate a fatal traffic accident on campus, Cotter said.

But when it comes to sex assault cases, Notre Dame thus far has chosen not to participate in the SVU. [Notre Dame Security Police] officers do notify SVU of sex assault reports but handle the investigations themselves.

By the way, the school has been spurning the South Bend Tribune‘s requests to meet with administrators for details on the campus disciplinary hearing process for handling rape allegations, and to get basic stats on cases and punishments.

The school spokesman evaded Notre Dame’s misleading advice to students in a statement to the Chicago Tribune:

Notre Dame spokesman Paul Browne said Monday the university has declined invitations to join the victims unit because the school can handle the investigations itself.

He said victims always have been free to report crimes to any police department.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education notes that Notre Dame has been criticized for how it handled rape allegations, with one student committing suicide a month after she reported her alleged assault to campus police rather than the county SVU:

Notre Dame seems to believe it has the specialized training, experience, and resources to adequately investigate claims of sexual assault without joining forces with the county’s SVU. However, former Notre Dame police investigator Pat Cottrell disagrees, arguing sexual assault allegations on campus should be investigated by the SVU.

Who does it sound like has better resources to investigate allegations? According to the Chicago Tribune:

The [special victims] unit, made up of 11 detectives drawn from the county’s major police departments, last year investigated 139 allegations of adult sex crimes. Notre Dame campus police handled 15 reported sex crimes in 2013, according to school figures supplied to the federal government.

Read the stories and FIRE’s post.

IMAGE: Mack Sennett Studios/Wikimedia Commons

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