pleted the recommendations.
The last one, “ensure prompt responses” is marked as
“existing practice.”
Stabile acknowledges the UO seems to be attempting to
make changes, such as posting sanctions against fraterni-
ties and sororities online, but she says, more than six
HANSON IS USING THE MONEY from the set-
months after the Senate Task Force made its recommenda-
tlement to pay for the extra year of school that she needed
tions they remain “stuck in some administrative limbo.”
after the assault. She also had to pay off those fines from
Will the school accept the advice of survivors such as
her sorority because she stopped attending events out of
Tracy and Hanson on how to best aid rape survivors and
fear she would run into the man she says assaulted her
change its broken system? Brown says, “The university is
while she was unconscious.
exploring all aspects of sexual violence prevention and
But now Hanson has gone from almost dropping out of
response education for campus, including bystander inter-
school in the wake of the sexual assault, to speaking out,
vention, firsthand experiences and others.”
to contacting and interviewing other survivors and turning
Portland attorney Jackie Swanson has been working
her desire for change into an honors thesis and writing a
with Brenda Tracy on her case and getting the statue of
book on sexual assault on U.S. college campuses.
limitations on sexual assaults in Oregon changed from six
Hanson is clear — she didn’t settle with the UO out of
IN AUGUST OF 2014, Laura Hanson filed an intent
years — one of the lowest in the nation — to 12. She says
to assert claims against the UO under Title IX stemming
fear or because she didn’t think she could win a case. She
she has talked to Sen. Jeff Merkely and Rep. Suzanne
from the January 2013 incident. According to the settle-
settled because she wants “to help survivors in a better
Bonamici and set up times with Sen. Ron Wyden to talk
way,” and she hopes to do that with her nearly completed
ment, signed by Hanson and UO Interim General Counsel
about amending laws relating to sexual violence on cam-
Douglas Park, Hanson alleges, and the school acknowl-
book manuscript for which she has an agent.
pus on the federal level.
edges, a delay in initiation of student conduct proceedings.
No rape case is the same, but across time and space,
Swanson explains that FERPA defines counseling
The settlement was for $30,000, the same amount Hanson
many of them have similarities — the institutional betrayal
records as educational records, and unlike HIPAA (the
says another rape survivor she knows in Colorado settled
survivors experience, the fact that year after year the pat-
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act),
terns continue and that schools put the needs of sports teams
for — that going rate for rape.
FERPA is like “cheese cloth” when it comes to protecting
and Greek life above those who have been assaulted.
Jennifer Middleton says that while she was speaking to
student privacy.
After the basketball rape scandal at the UO made head-
the UO’s outside counsel on the case, the other attorney
lines last year, Kelly Goodman told EW that she was raped
“informed me she had a copy of Laura’s records.” Middleton
“That’s really the crux of the issue,” she says. “The law
should be changed and students entitled to the con-
thought she had all Hanson’s counseling center
fidentiality of their records.”
records but, “the UO told me they had the records, that
BRENDA TRACY
She says she is also looking into the Jeanne
surprised me,” she says, “both because I thought I had
Clery Act, a federal law that, like Title IX, applies to
the records, and because she had them.”
schools getting federal funding. Clery requires
For Middleton to get the records, Hanson had to
sign a FERPA (Family Educational Rights and
reports of alleged crimes on and around campus to
Privacy Act) release, but the UO got those records
be made and sent out but its boundaries are limited.
without asking Hanson for a release.
“I think the main thing we are looking at is
This is the second time the UO seems to have sim-
expanding the perimeters,” Swanson says, “who the
ply taken a student’s counseling records, leading to
Clery Act applies to and expanding out to more of a
the question of whether the school has a pattern and
mile radius around the school.”
practice of doing so in these cases. The first known
Title IX is “a wonderful law in a lot of ways, but
incident was that of the basketball rape survivor, and
there are flaws in its enforcement,” Swanson says.
when that was made public, in addition to the UO’s
Tracy is also working to pass several bills deal-
decision to countersue the survivor, the backlash was
ing with campus sexual assault in the Oregon
intense, locally and across the country.
Legislature this session: In addition to HB 2317,
Middleton says that even in the context of a law-
which would extend the statute of limitations and
suit, the normal route by which the school would have
thus affect non-campus-related sexual assaults,
gotten the records would be to formally ask, and the
another bill, SB 759, would require that universities
plaintiff’s lawyer would have a chance to say what’s
provide easy-to-read, written information to sexual
relevant and ask a judge to redact certain items.
assault victims regarding their rights.
PHOTO BY TODD COOPER
She says how UO got Hanson’s records is “not
And on May 26, the Oregon Senate passed HB
identical” to the basketball case, “but to the extent the UO
3476, which would allow counselors, therapists and other
in 2001 by a UO football player who went on to play in the
claims when there’s some sort of legal action, they are
victim’s advocates to bypass mandatory reporting require-
NFL while her “life got shoved back six or seven years.”
entitled to help themselves, it’s similar in that way.”
ments under Title IX if a student doesn’t want to take
Goodman did report to the police but the district attorney
Middleton says, “There are a lot of detailed and not
immediate formal action. It would also prevent a univer-
did not file charges. As in so many other cases, Goodman
entirely clear exceptions to FERPA” that the UO is draw-
sity like the UO from accessing a student’s therapy records
says she was pressured not to report and victim-blamed.
ing upon in accessing the counseling records.
unless a student was suing the school about the therapy or
In 1998 a woman named Brenda Tracy alleged she was
UO spokeswoman Brown responds that “confidential
counseling he or she received. The bill passed in the House
gang-raped by four men, two of them Oregon State foot-
counseling records would never be accessed by any UO
in April and now awaits Gov. Kate Brown’s signature.
ball players, at a Corvallis apartment. She filed charges,
personnel, unless it was (1) lawful for the employee to
Annie Clark, a rape survivor and activist who appears
but dropped them because like Hanson, she was told it
access the records, and (2) necessary to access the records in
in the acclaimed documentary on campus rape, The
would be a “he-said, she-said” case. She wasn’t told the
order for the employee to do his or her job.”
Hunting Ground, came to Oregon in May to speak in favor
men had confessed.
Jennifer Morlok, a UO counseling center senior staff
of extending the statute of limitations on rape cases. She
Though she wasn’t a student, she later turned to OSU
therapist, filed complaints earlier this year about the alleged
says documentaries and books, such as the one Hanson is
“wanting to have some sort of justice” and because “I
mishandling of the counseling records, The Oregonian
writing, as well as media attention are bringing sexual
wanted to make sure no one else was hurt by them.” The
reported. Holmes, who is a former director of the counsel-
assault to cultural attention, but “the trend is still to being
players got a one-game suspension and community service
ing center, and three other UO employees are under investi-
very reactive on college campuses.” She says schools
hours. Tracy then retreated to a life of shame and says she
gation by the Oregon Board of Psychologist Examiners for
aren’t dong anything until there’s a lawsuit, and adds,
pretended it never happened.
allegedly mishandling the basketball rape survivor’s coun-
“We’ve yet to see a college step up and be a leader.”
OSU has since apologized to Tracy, and, like Hanson,
seling records. When asked for the status of the complaints,
Hanson’s case might be settled, but her goals to change
she is taking action to change the system in Oregon that
Charles Hill, the board’s executive director, tells EW the
the UO’s patterns of dealing with survivors are ongoing.
has allowed the assaults to continue.
board “may not respond to questions that ask the board to
As part of her settlement, Hanson came back to Eugene
Tracy recently came to the UO campus at the invitation
confirm or deny the existence of an investigation, or to
and met with Holmes and Daugherty, hoping for answers
of the school’s Intercollegiate Athletics Committee to talk
and some closure.
respond to any related specific questions.”
about her experience and what she is doing to affect change.
Afterward Hanson called the meeting “completely dis-
“It’s sad to me because this is still happening today,”
Kateri Walsh of the Oregon State Bar says it is doing an
respectful.”
Tracy says. She says schools worry more about their repu-
initial screening to determine if a complaint against UO
After everything that had happened, she says the
attorneys Douglas Park and Samantha Hill over the
tations and donors than they do about victims.
women didn’t care enough to look up her case, or even
The UO has examined the recommendations of both the
records should be forwarded to Disciplinary Counsel’s
know she had graduated. She says the school has not con-
Senate Task Force as well as that of the Presidential Review
Office for more formal investigation.
tacted her about her offer to help it in its dealing with
Panel on the school’s response to sexual misconduct and
On May 26, Jen Gomez, a UO doctoral candidate in
survivors. “It’s not their fault I was raped,” she says of the
according to a long list of more than 20 recommendations,
clinical psychology, also sent a letter to Oregon’s Board of
school, but “the UO as a place doesn’t care.” ■
the school has either accepted, is already doing or has com-
Psychologist Examiners saying that in addition to specific
Stabile, one of the many critics of using a journal in
these cases, calls it reducing “sexual assault to some
creepy assignment” and asks, “Who reads them? Who
decides if it worked?” She adds that she imagines hearing
the perpetrators laughing about it and saying to one anoth-
er, “I had to write some corny essay.”
Brown says that the work is taken seriously and shows
that the student has learned from the assignment. She says
the UO no longer uses a journal as an activity for those
found responsible for sexual misconduct.
“I’ve given them so many opportunities to right what
they did to me,” Hanson says of her struggle to get the UO
to deal with her case. “I’m having to fight an uphill battle
just to get truth and respect.”
codes of conduct, the UO psychologists “violated all five
ethical principles that govern the psychology profession”
and asked the matter be dealt with.
eugeneweekly.com • May 28, 2015
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