The Timeline Project

“We Will Not Be Silenced”

Another serial predator gets kid-glove treatment and students get LOUD.

One evening in January 1990, a freshman, call her “Elena,” woke up vomiting in an unfamiliar bathroom. She had been drinking with friends in Burton before the Midwinter Ball (she never made it), and realized she must have passed out. After she slept it off, she saw her clothes in a heap on the floor. Her stockings were torn and there was blood in her underwear, and she feared the worst. Her friends confirmed that she’d been alone in a room with another student from the party–we’ll call him “John Doe.” She called his room and was told he was in the library, so she took a friend and went to confront him. He confirmed that he’d had intercourse with her while she was unconscious. Her friend took her to Northfield Hospital for a pelvic exam and testing for pregnancy and STIs. 

Elena called her mother, who immediately flew to campus to support her, and together they reported the assault to dean of students Cris Roosenraad. Neither she nor most other Carleton students had any idea that only a few months earlier four rape survivors had filed a federal lawsuit against Roosenraad and Carleton for mishandling their complaints of sexual assault. Roosenraad told Elena that her being so drunk at the time of the attack wouldn’t count against Doe, and she decided not to file a formal complaint. 

In March 1991, President Lewis revealed that Carleton had been sued, and two weeks later, 200 students rallied at a rape speakout, with a smaller group marching to Lewis’s office to demand that Roosenraad step down.

Elena’s mother went home and started looking into the problem of campus rape, sending some of her research on to Roosenraad and college president Stephen Lewis. And Elena learned that John Doe had raped two other students. At the end of April she told Roosenraad that she wanted her case adjudicated after all. Roosenraad’s letter to Doe informed him that he was being charged with “physical sexual harassment,” including “penetration without consent.” He set the hearing for May 20. 

Elena neglected her studies while she prepared with the help of friends for the hearing, gathering testimony from witnesses, researching sexual assault laws and policies, and formulating questions for her assailant. She spoke to an attorney, who told her that in Minnesota, sex with a “physically helpless” victim meeting one of three criteria constitutes criminal sexual assault. Elena's condition on January 27 met all three. The lawyer further explained, “Your intoxication at the time of the abuse does not in any way excuse the assailant’s conduct. On the contrary, it was the very fact of your intoxication that made his conduct criminal.”

Then on May 20 Elena got a call from Roosenraad. The hearing had been rescheduled for May 24. 

In between, the College Council approved a new sexual assault policy. A year earlier, students outraged by the leniency Carlleton had shown to sexual predators, especially two serial rapists, had demanded revisions to the policy (see 1980s Carleton Spotlight), and the college hired a legal consultant to assist in a rewrite. The new policy, effective May 22, deleted changes students had won several years earlier, omitted any definition, or even mention of sexual assault, and removed minimum punishments for various offenses. 

Two days later Elena got her hearing. The Judicial Hearing Board was made up of four students, two staff, and two faculty. Elena presented her evidence. John Doe admitted that she’d been unconscious when he raped her, and the only explanation he offered was that she didn’t resist. Nevertheless, the JHB found him faultless and imposed no penalty on him.

In the fall, Elena became the president of the Student Movement Against Sexual Harassment, or SMASH. And in February, the words “We Will Not Be Silenced” were spray-painted on a sidewalk, along with the name of John Doe. Elena and SMASH denied any involvement in the graffiti, but plenty of students were aware of what he had done.

Elena fell behind and ended up attending Carleton for an extra year before she graduated. Her rapist graduated right on time.