A while back I wrote a column noting that the Rolling Stone magazine story, “A Rape on Campus,” about the rape of a female coed by members of a fraternity at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville broke practically every rule of journalism. Recently, The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, which was asked to review the story, agreed, calling it among the worst pieces of journalism in 20014. Further, the Charlottesville police, after an exhaustive investigation, found no proof of any kind that a rape took place.
Two things are especially infuriating about the story. First, it undoubtedly will have the opposite effect from its intent. Women actually raped on college campuses will be far more hesitant to come forward in the aftermath of this journalistic fiasco.
Second, the reputation of UVa, my alma mater, has been unfairly maligned. For most of its existence, UVa has been considered one of the finest institutions of higher learning in America, and — take it from me and my daughter Remy, a recent UVa grad — both culturally and socially it was a wonderful college experience.
And yet, in the aftermath of the story’s publication, UVa was designated “The rape school,” and parents were quoted as saying they wouldn’t let their daughters near the school.
Statistically, UVa’s designation as “the rape school” is ludicrous. According to Department of Education figures, in 2014 UVa’s student population was 21,238, of whom 11,700 — just over half — were female. Since the year 2011, when the Education Department began mandating the reporting of sexual misconduct complaints, UVa has averaged 17 reported offenses a year. That’s fewer than two for every 1,000 female students, or 0.15 percent. Yes, last year’s high-profile murder, and possible rape, of second-year student Hannah Graham was a tragedy, but the accused was not a UVa student, but a local vagrant.
Perhaps one reason so few sexual misconduct cases are reported is that in 2011 UVa invested nearly $500,000 in new security lighting, while expanding the installation of emergency phones around the campus to more than 500. UVa also expanded its “Safe-Ride” van system, used to transport students after regular university and city buses stop running. In addition, in 2014, UVa hosted a national conference on student sexual misconduct, which drew experts from 60 colleges and universities.
Granted, the statistics above don’t include unreported rapes or attempted rapes, and one rape on UVa’s campus, or any college campus, is one too many.
But it is sadly ironic that an incredibly sloppy piece of journalism has undermined the reputation of a university founded by one of the greatest truth seekers in our history, Thomas Jefferson, who actually preferred relying on publications such as newspapers and periodicals to tell him the truth.
