Dear Dub: SLU’s Pattern of Failings
Content Warning: This article contains content related to sexual assault, drugging and other topics that may be triggering.
The past two weeks have included the publicizing of a legal document which brought to light the drugging and sexual assault of a professor by Ernesto Moralez (a SLU public-health faculty), as well as the bi-annual Take Back the Night event, where survivors of sexual and domestic violence share their stories. This has brought to the forefront of my mind the lack of care that St. Lawrence administration has for its students and staff in all capacities. While many of you may be familiar with the Doe – Moralez case, below is a brief outline of the numerous ways that SLU administration has inflicted further harm on Ms. Doe, has failed us as students, and has failed survivors everywhere.
On April 15th, one year ago, Ms. Doe reported her assault to the university. The SLU administration encourages people to report sexual misconduct, with the promise of the support of the Title IX system and the school. However, despite Ms. Doe reporting, action has still not been taken by the university, now a full year later. As detailed in the Doe – Moralez legal document, SLU failed to seize Moralez’s university owned devices to investigate the purchasing of date rape drugs until months after the allegation. SLU also allowed Moralez to keep teaching in person classes and holding office hours with students for weeks after the allegation. Additionally, before hiring Moralez, SLU chose not to look into previous allegation of sexual assault against Moralez from two previous jobs at a university and highschool.
SLU has a pattern of intense and vile victim blaming, which can also be seen in Ms. Doe’s experience. During the internal Title IX process, SLU claimed that Ms. Doe’s mental and physical incapacitation after having the (drugged) mixed drink made her an untrustworthy source, compared to the perpetrator. Ms. Doe was also subjected to a gross interrogation of the details of the event, which shows a blatant lack of regard for trauma victims and well known coping mechanisms after sexual assault.
Throughout all Title IX investigations, SLU’s priority is clearly not the wellbeing of the survivor. Continuing this pattern with Ms. Doe, SLU’s administration has repeatedly chosen to act in the interest of preserving their status, rather than following the legal process or supporting Ms. Doe. This started when SLU questioned Ms. Doe to obtain information that could then be used against her in the Title IX and litigation processes, without informing her of any of her rights under Title IX or her right to have legal counsel. SLU then falsely advised Ms. Doe that she was not allowed to have her own legal counsel during the investigation.
If you take away anything from this article, I want it to be that this is an ongoing pattern of intentional inaction from SLU, both throughout Ms. Doe’s experience and throughout the history of SLU. The Doe – Moralez document mentions instances in 2014, 2018, and 2021 when a combination of students and staff called on the administration to address the rape culture on campus and the lack of action and support by the university. It has of course been an issue for much longer than that. In the case of Ms. Doe, one form of ongoing inaction has come as repeated violations of a no-contact order (one of the few ‘supports’ offered by the Title IX office). In addition to their failure to adhere to internal Title IX policies by not issuing any findings from this complaint, SLU administration has made their intentions doubly clear by confirming that instead of a full investigation of Ms. Doe’s case, they are preparing a legal defense for the university. Additionally, Moralez was only placed on paid administrative leave three months after the allegations, and the university has not released any statement addressing the fact that he is scheduled to teach a full course load this Fall.
If you want to engage with or understand the SLU Title IX process for students, here are some basic outlines of the procedures. If you understandably don’t, given the repeated failure of SLU over many years to act in a way that protects, validates, or supports students in any way, there are a number of non-administrative resources described below.
There are two categories of people that you can report to at St. Lawrence: confidential and non-confidential resources. Reporting to a confidential resource means that your identity will remain anonymous, and that the University is not able to act on your report. Confidential resources available to students include the Advocates, the Health and Counseling Center, and the Chaplain’s office. Reporting to a non-confidential resource means that your report will be conveyed to the Title IX coordinator, who will then reach out about next steps in the reporting process. Non-confidential resources include Lindsey Cohen the current Title IX Coordinator, Hagi Bradley, Rance Davis, Ashley Downing-Duke, all security officers, all CA’s, RC’s, and Theme Coordinators (excluding Dub). A full list of non-confidential reporters can be found on the SLU Title IX website.
There are three general types of responses that a non-confidential reporter can facilitate: supportive measures, informal resolution, and a formal complaint. Supportive measures can include change of residence, and “no contact” orders. An informal resolution is a process where a facilitator helps the reporter and perpetrator come to an agreement on how to ‘address the situation’. A formal complaint starts an investigation and adjudication process, through which the University either designates the accused person as ‘responsible’ or ‘not responsible’. As we have seen from Ms. Doe’s case, and from countless other cases on this campus, the University often fails to take these supportive measures seriously, and so they are often of little help, and amount to only performative action.
Some student-led and off campus resources I want to draw attention to are the Advocates, the Dub, and the Renewal House. Advocates runs many amazing events and very informative trainings, and they offer a 24-hr support line that you can call at (315) 244-5466. The Dub is a theme house on campus that runs events focused on intersectional feminism. We provide safe sex resources (condoms, dental dams, lube, plan-B, etc) as well as informational resources about sexual wellbeing, local health resources, and support for survivors. The Renewal House is an amazing local organization that supports survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in a variety of ways.