By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton University and 54 other colleges are being investigated by the federal government into how they handle investigations into campus sex crimes.
The U.S. Department of Education said Thursday that it would not provide any specific details about Princeton or the other schools. The department’s Office for Civil Rights is exploring “possible violations” of the federal Title IX, which prohibits gender-based discrimination against anyone attending schools that get federal funding.
Princeton was the only New Jersey school on the list of colleges that also included fellow Ivy League schools Harvard and Dartmouth. The list came out the week that the campus newspaper, The Daily Princetonian, published an anonymous op-ed by a female Princeton student who wrote about being raped during her freshman year.
”We are making this list available in an effort to bring more transparency to our enforcement work and to foster better public awareness of civil rights,” said assistant Secretary Catherine E. Lhamon in a press release issued Thursday. “We hope this increased transparency will spur community dialogue about this important issue.”
Princeton was not answering any questions about the matter or describing what kinds of information the school provides students who have been raped.
”The university is aware of the investigation, which began in 2010, and will continue to cooperate with the Office for Civil Rights,” university spokesman Martin A. Mbugua said by email Friday. “As you might know, OCR has stated that ‘a college or university’s appearance on this list and being the subject of a Title IX investigation in no way indicates at this stage that the college or university is violating or has violated the law.’”
The probe began when Shirley M. Tilghman was university president and current president Christopher L. Eisgruber was provost. By law, schools must release campus crime statistics. The latest Clery report for Princeton University, released for calendar year 2012, showed that the school had 17 “forcible” sex offenses on campus.
The government’s decision to release the list came amid heightened scrutiny that the Obama administration is putting on campus rape. In January, President Barack Obama created a task force to look at the issue and said “the prevalence of rape and sexual assault at our nation’s institutions of higher education is both deeply troubling and a call to action.”
For her part, Princeton Councilwoman Jo S. Butler said she did not know whether a student is allowed to go to Princeton police to report being raped or must instead go to the campus Department of Public Safety. She said she is not allowed to disclose which agency — the police or the university public safety — would handle the initial criminal investigation of a campus rape that is reported after the fact.
That sort of detail is contained in a 2013 agreement between the police and the university public safety department that spells out which agency will respond to a campus incident depending on the crime or situation. Ms. Butler said she has pressed the police department and the municipal attorney “repeatedly” to disclose more about the agreement.
”Everyone has the right to know who will respond when you call for help or want to report a crime,” Ms. Butler said.
Police Chief Nicholas K. Sutter said Friday that a student could report a rape directly to police. He also noted that the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office is the “lead” investigatory agency of all sex assaults.
In the Princeton student’s op-ed piece, she discussed a “rape culture” at Princeton.
”I hate the culture — the rape culture — that creates otherwise decent people who do completely indecent things,” she wrote. “This culture exists here, at other Ivies, at other colleges and outside of college environments entirely. Beyond the eating clubs, rape culture already manifests itself elsewhere on campus.”
