A University of North Carolina student who says she was sexually assaulted by a fellow student faced charges from the UNC Honor Court. Why? Because, according to the ‘Honor Court’ she was possibly guilty of “intimidating” the man whom she says assaulted her, despite the fact that she reportedly never named him publicly.
Sound strange? I thought so too.
Today, we can report that these so-called “honor court” charges against the alleged victim have been dropped.
After an external review, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill announced Thursday that it dropped a school honor court charge against Landen Gambill, a student who was accused of “intimidating” the man she says sexually assaulted her.
Gambill was one of five women who filed two federal complaints against UNC in January alleging that the school underreports sexual assaults and fails to properly adjudicate them. Gambill spoke out about what she said was a failure on the part of the UNC honor court, which found her ex-boyfriend not guilty of assault. She never identified him by name, but was nevertheless hit with an honor court charge brought against her by the ex-boyfriend in February, claiming Gambill created an “intimidating” and “hostile” environment for him.
Gambill believed the charge was actually retaliation from the school for her federal complaints, and after an intense backlash, UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Holden Thorp asked the honor court to suspend the charge in March. Thorp, who will leave office this summer, told the campus Thursday that the charge was being dropped.
But Gambill’s charge is only being dropped because the UNC administration has recommended that all students charged with “disruptive or intimidating behavior” should have those charges dismissed, pending an evaluation of that specific honor code provision by a campus committee…
Henry Clay Turner, Gambill’s attorney, said they still expect federal officials to “conduct a thorough, credible investigation” in response to a complaint they filed in March — the third against UNC — claiming the charge was retaliation.
Read the full story at The Huffington Post.
There’s a curious side note to this case for me, personally: Gambill’s attorney in her federal case, Henry Clay Turner, was a classmate of mine at Yale. (I knew him simply as “Clay Turner” back then.) It’s an interesting parallel because the allegations in this federal suit are so similar to those made by a group of Yale students a couple of years ago, which ultimately resulted in a $100,000 fine levied against Yale by the Department of Education. Not enough of a penalty, in my opinion, but I found it satisfying that at least some kind of punishment was levied against the university for a few of the outrages I wrote about in Sex & God at Yale.
I don’t know all the details in the Gambill case at UNC. But here’s hoping for a just outcome. I’m sure Clay will be doing his best to see to that.
Nathan Harden is editor of The College Fix and author of SEX & GOD AT YALE: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad.
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