 Wednesday 4 June 2014  This past February, Andrea Dooley found herself feeling "a very strange sort of deja vu" when she learned her alma mater, the University of Chicago, was under federal investigation for allegedly mishandling cases of sexual assault on its campus. Nearly two decades earlier, in 1996, Dooley was part of a group that pressured the school to reform its sexual violence policies, only to ultimately feel brushed aside by the administration. The group had formed in response to a number of maddening incidents, alumni recall. Sloppy work by campus police and student health services had resulted in the destruction of evidence in some cases. Reported victims were steered away from the Chicago Police Department. And the lack of centralized coordination was causing survivors to bounce from one office to another until they eventually gave up. Now, in 2014, upon hearing of the latest allegations, Dooley and a group of 28 other UC alumni issued an open letter to the school's administrators. That was in February. By May, more than 600 people had signed on, including some who had graduated UC as far back as the early 1980s. Their message, Dooley said, was "don't pretend like you've never heard this before." Some of the present-day administrators were even among the same people Dooley and her fellow students dealt with in the '90s, she said. The University of Chicago is one of 60 higher education institutions currently under investigation for allegedly mishandling sexual violence on campus in violation of the gender equity law Title IX. For all the focus on the current complaints, there's a parallel conversation taking place among alumni in meetings, on Facebook, over email and on the phone. Graduates have noted again and again how they themselves raised similar concerns years or decades ago. It's incredible, alumni say, how little has changed. Continue reading...
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