TO THE EDITOR:
We are a group of 19 survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, harassment, discrimination and other gender-based violence at UNC-Chapel Hill. We support and create safe spaces for each other to heal.
We have gone through criminal procedures, civil proceedings, honor court hearings, Title IX investigations and four policies on sexual assault at UNC. We have obtained 50B, 50C civil no-contact orders, criminal indictments and convictions. Only two of us have had our assailants found “responsible” in internal Title IX hearings. Of those who have placed their trust in university reporting, none have had their rapists expelled.
Vice Chancellor Felicia Washington’s Tuesday letter to the editor is harmful and insensitive to all those who have been disbelieved and blamed on campus.
The fact is that being forced out of Carolina is a usual consequence of sexual assault here, but only for survivors.
Several of our group members have been unable to finish our UNC degrees because of the University’s lack of support and mishandling of our cases. Keeping assailants on campus is triggering and traumatic to survivors. UNC simply does not expel rapists.
This is not right.
Throughout the different policies, our complaints are largely the same. Years have passed, promises have been made by the administration — but a fair, professionally run system for dealing with campus sexual assault has not been created. The Carolina Way is lacking when it comes to victims of sexual assault.
Christine Allison
