University of Akron Might Have Plagiarized Its Sexual Assault Policies

Plagiarism on campus: not just for over-caffeinated students the
throes of finals week desperation any more! Apparently, it's also
an attractive option for college administrators at University of
Akron in Ohio, who seemingly lifted several sections of their
own sexual assault policy guide directly from other colleges. In
some sections, they didn't even bother editing the segments that
referred to options not available on University of Akron's
campus. Good to know that institutions of higher education are
so unflinchingly committed to preventing and responding to
sexual assault.
According to a report in Newsweek, Julia Dixon — a University
of Akron graduate who was raped during her first week as a
freshman, in 2008 — recently filed a Clery Act complaint
against her alma mater for grossly mishandling her case.
Procedurally, her case wasn't particularly difficult to handle:
Dixon called campus police immediately after her assault and
went to the local hospital in order to obtain a rape kit. The
University's response was abhorrent, though. While she was still
in the hospital , she was encouraged by a University detective to
keep her sexual assault a secret because, as she put it, "a
defense lawyer could make it seem like I did it for attention
otherwise." It took the police 20 weeks to process her kit, at
which point her rapist had graduated.
Dixon was disturbed that campus police were so uninformed
about the school's official sexual assault protocols. When
writing her complaint, she found that ignorance seemed to be
the school's policy. As Katie J.M. Baker puts it at Newsweek,
"large swaths appeared to have been copied, at times verbatim,
from the policies of other colleges — and, in some cases, the
University of Akron's policy offered options that weren't
actually available on campus." Some particularly egregious
examples: in a passage lifted from the University of Miami's
sexual assault policy, the University of Akron's policy refers to
the "Office of Equity and Equal Opportunity," which it does not
have. It also makes a reference to a non-existent Appendix B
and purports to offer support services that will move the alleged
victim or perpetrator so they don't share the same dining hall.
Sounds great, but the University of Akron only has one campus
dining hall. When Dixon mentioned this service to Student
Judicial Affairs, she was advised to eat early in the morning or
late at night, when there were less people around. Though the
university's policy maintained that "victim support and
resources" are available, Dixon affirms that she was not offered
any accommodations, even after being diagnosed with PTSD.
"It was one thing when I thought they weren't following their
own policy, but now I think they're completely ignorant on this
entire document," Dixon told Newsweek. "It looks like somebody
skimmed it and edited it, but that's about all." (University of
Akron's Dean of Students maintains that the errors are "typos,"
officially edging out Shia LaBeouf for Worst Excuse For
Plagiarizing in all of the 2010's.) Dixon thinks that the school's
ineffective and shoddy policy is indicative of the fact that
"institutions are more interested in appearing to comply with
the law than actually following it and helping their students."
That college administrations are more concerned with news of
rape getting out than rape happening is, sadly, not news — it's
something that's led colleges to dangerously underreport
instances of sexual assault time and time again. And, as IX
activist Alexandra Brodsky pointed out in a Google hangout
session with Congresswoman Jackie Speier yesterday, this is
something that Obama's sexual assault task force and the
Department of Education must stay mindful of:
"I think Title IX is really great law in theory. But, in
practice, because the Department of Education isn't really
enforcing it, it's kind of like a cute, fluffy gorilla in the
room right now... Title IX has to have teeth. Right now, a
student will go to the Department and say, 'Things are bad
on our campus,' and the Department will do this long
investigation and then say, 'School, if you promise to do
better in the future, then we'll let you off the hook.'"
Enough letting schools off the hook as long as they promise to
try really, really hard to be better. The ED needs to put serious
pressure on college administrations to focus on the safety,
health and security of their students above all else — especially
their reputations, which far too often hinge on sweeping rape
allegations under the rug.