Title IX Cases on Campus

Here at Marist College, we market ourselves as completely intolerant of assault and sexual violence. Marist states that they take a firm stance against sexual assault harassment and harassment, but how much have they actually done to help their students who are reaching out after misconduct was enacted against them? What has Marist done to hold the perpetrators accountable and what will they do to prevent violence from occurring in the future?  

According to the U.S. Department of Education,“in 2015, nearly 9,300 cases of forcible sex offenses, rape (including statutory rape) and fondling were reported at colleges — on campuses, in dorms, on other university- or school organization-owned properties, and on campus-adjacent public properties.” Rape reports at New York's college campuses rose by 13% between 2016 and 2017 with 8 more reports of rape and five reports of dating violence. These reports continue to rise today. The New York Upstate reports that Marist College currently ranks #21 among the top 45 colleges with the highest reports of rape in the upstate New York area. 

I spoke to some survivors of sexual assault and dating violence to ask about their experience with the Title IX office and to find out how Marist handled their cases. One woman who spoke out about her experience was Jahira Magnus, a sophomore here at Marist, who is a survivor of sexual and dating violence. 

Magnus reported a football player, Bryan Vargas, for beating her, as well as another female student, leaving her unable to stand. "My abuser was kicked off his program for maybe a week, no more than two weeks," Magnus said. “I didn’t want to report him originally because he was a star player. He was popular and, when I first told people about it, no one believed me.” 

Jahira’s and many other survivor’s experiences are the very reason so many women and men don’t report their assaults; because they’re afraid no one will believe them, or their perpetrators won’t be held accountable. 

The New York Upstate discloses that even though one-in-six female college students reported having been a victim of rape or attempted rape during the preceding year, only 5% of them sought help at a crisis center. Magnus also stressed that when she did report him, the complaints were handled very quickly. 

“I’m not sure if it was for the benefit of the Marist image or to help the specific individual, but it felt like Marist was looking after itself rather than the students,” Magnus said. “It seems like Marist is trying to protect their image more than the students here.”

Even after reporting Vargas to the Title IX office, he still lived near the two girls he assaulted.

“The assault happened off campus, so it became a criminal investigation,” Magnus said. “It felt like when I did report it, the response from Marist was kind of disappointing. Marist should be putting the priority of the community first.” 

Magnus and the other female student’s families, tired of waiting around for Marist to do something, started their own petition, on Change.Org, to have Vargas kicked off campus, gaining over 24,000 signatures. Vargas was later found guilty and kicked off Marist’s campus a year later. 

Another student at Marist, who is a survivor of sexual assault, recalls it taking seven months for the investigation into her case to end. 

“The process was long and really draining,” she said. “It’s just a constant reminder of the trauma you’ve already been through.” 

Another woman, a freshman here on campus, was sexually assaulted and caught the aggression on camera this year. When she reported the perpetrator to security showing the Title IX officer the video evidence, the only thing Marist said they could do for her was to move the perpetrator to a different dorm. 

She still sees him on campus and other students who know about the assault and who are in classes with him say they “just don’t feel safe.” These survivors believe that Marist is doing the “bare minimum” and that the Title IX office needs to believe survivors when they first come forward in order to stop this cycle of abuse.

Both the Office of Safety and Security as well as the Title IX staff say they are “making strides in terms of taking action to further prevent sexual assaults on campus.” What strides are being made?  Their efforts to promote awareness on campus are merely to ask students to fill out an optional survey and to view a sexual assault awareness video which, according to the Deputy Title IX Coordinator of Marist, only 55% of undergrads actually watch. How effective is online training and sensitivity training? Is it really making much of a difference if perpetrators aren’t held accountable? 

Sexual assault and rape culture permeate college life and affect us all. Marist, and colleges in general, could do a lot more to help foster the type of environment in which survivors feel more comfortable reporting sexual assaults. Taking these allegations more seriously would be a step in the right direction. The first thing Marist can do to re-establish trust between faculty and students is to believe these survivors and hold perpetrators accountable for their actions. The Clery Act demands that schools provide crime statistics and safety policies to the public. While all efforts to reduce sexual violence have an impact, schools must understand the need for additional measures to reduce risk and also commit to accurate reporting of sexual violence on campus. 

People will continue to abuse others if they know they are capable of getting away with it; punishing them is the only way to stop them. Colleges need to raise awareness and understanding of what rape and assault really are, and how seriously they can affect survivors. Marist needs to equip students by educating them on how to file a report immediately after an assault has taken place. Marist should also consider starting a survivor support group on campus where students can have a safe place to talk about their experience. 

I encourage anyone who has had any form of abuse or assault to speak up about their experience. It’s sad to admit that it takes a tragedy for something to happen, for things to change. But, we won’t get justice for all survivors until Marist students, as a community, speak up about this issue, remain loud and demand change.