1980s Timeline

Campus rape and baby steps toward justice.

Sept 22, 1980

Sexual Harassment Is Discrimination 

In Alexander v. Yale, students advised by law professor Catharine MacKinnon successfully test her theory that under Title IX, sexual harassment at an educational institution is illegal.

May 15,1981 

Dean: Violence No Cause for Concern 

Four youths kidnap and rape an 18-year-old in Northfield. Three men with a gun corner and racially harass a Black woman at Erickson’s grocery. Dean of students David Appleyard and head of security Jim Flaherty decline to increase campus security. 

Oct 16,1981 

Ruggers Rampage

Drunken rugby players from St. Olaf and Gustavus Adolphus invade an all women's floor in Myers, and student security refuses to assist until they've physically assaulted an RA and ripped a phone off the wall.

Oct 23,1981

Carletonian Addresses Rape on Campus

In a two-part series, two Carls raped by fellow students describe the difficulties they faced afterward, noting the absence of a policy for dealing with sexual assault, and other ways the school failed to support them. 

March 8, 1982

Edwards Commissions a Sexual Assault Policy

The president designates a committee of eight faculty and two students to write guidelines “sexual harassment and physical violence.” The new policy passes in May, defining sexual assault as a form of sexual harassment.

April 9, 1982

Students Step Up With Security

In response to security failures during the rugby party in October, as well as frequent denials of requests for escorts (head of security Jim Flaherty says they provide escorts only at the “discretion and convenience” of staff) the Women’s Caucus creates a volunteer late-night escort service. 

June 30, 1982 

ERA Fails 

Only 35 of the 38 states required for passage have ratified the amendment.

Dec 30, 1983

Minneapolis Anti-Porn Ordinance Fails

Testing the viability of using civil rights litigation to fight porn, Minneapolis hires University of Minnesota instructors Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin to draft an anit-pornography ordinance. It passes in the city council but is vetoed by the mayor.

Feb 28, 1984

Title IX Curtailed

In Grove City College v. Bell, SCOTUS holds that all of the programs at a college receiving federal funds don't have to comply with Title IX.

Aug 6, 1984

Global Abortion Gag Rule 

President Reagan blocks federal funding to foreign organizations providing abortions or abortion counseling, referrals, or advocacy.

Sept 1984 

“Peter Poe” Begins Raping Fellow Students 

A freshman later identified pseudonymously as “Peter Poe” rapes his next door neighbor in Myers. In the spring he assaults her again and then another student on the floor.

Sept 1, 1985

Drinking Age 21—for Most

The new national drinking age of 21 takes effect in Minnesota. Anyone who turned 19 before September can continue to drink alcohol.

Feb 1986

“Poe” Rapes Another Freshman

Poe, now a junior, locks a freshman in her room and rapes her. Two weeks later, when they're backstage at a play rehearsal, he rips open her dress, exposing her to other students and a professor. The freshman tells her roommate and three others about the rape but doesn’t report it to the college until November 1987.

July 1, 1986

Edwards Presidency Ends, Porter Begins Interim Presidency

After nine years as president, Bob Edwards leaves and classics and music professor David Porter steps in on an interim basis.

Sept 1, 1986

Minnesota Raises Drinking Age to 21

Compliance with the national law passed in July begins. Those who turned 19 before September 1 are grandfathered in.

Fall 1986

“Frank Foe” Accused 

A student reports being “sexually harassed” by a freshman later identified pseudonymously in legal proceedings as “Frank Foe,” but she’s redirected to the office of Third World Affairs, presumably because he is a person of color. She says she was advised there to “just forget about it.” 

Nov 22, 1986

“Poe” Victim Leaves Carleton

The student raped by Poe in February 1986 and then assaulted backstage suffers from depression, which she attributes to the attacks. When she flies home for Thanksgiving she has a panic attack on the plane thinking about “how close I came to killing myself” and decides to take a year off. 

Jan 7,1987

"The Castration List"

Someone stuffs students' mailboxes with a note warnng them to beware of Poe, and after she’s identified, Cris Roosenraad makes her send Poe a letter of apology. Survivors add the names of their assailants to a list on the wall in a library bathroom. When the administration has it painted over, it reappears under the heading “Castration List.”

Jan 30, 1987

“Rape and Acquaintance Rape”

Three Carleton students, two men and a woman, screen their film about the attitudes of college men toward campus assault. Afterward, Dean Jean Phillips explains Carleton’s process for filing a complaint.

Feb 7, 1987

Double Standard Debate

Students discuss whether women athletes deserve varsity letter jackets.

April 7, 1987

Students Revise Sexual Assault Policy

With an eye to increasing transparency and accountability, a majority-student committee recommends expanding the reporting window from six months to seven years, allowing victims to move rooms, disallowing victim’s sexual history from hearings, and requiring the collection and sharing of campus crime statistics. They campaign heavily for minimum punishments for each level of offense, about which Roosenraad says he has “personal misgivings.” The College Council adopts all of the recommendations anyway. 

June 1987

Helpful Hints for Rapists

Five students who say they were sexually assaulted by Foe implore Roosenraad to take action against him. One learned recently that a complaint she filed had never been adjudicated. Another has been waiting for a response a claim she filed in March. Foe then gets to choose how it will be adjudicated, in a private meeting with Roosenraad and the victim, where Roosenraad says he can’t tell if a rape occurred because the victim admitted she’d been drinking when she was attacked. 

Sept 1987

Student Movement Against Sexual Harassment

Members of the newly formed SMASH begin organizing a month’s worth of educational events, including workshops, forums, films, a mock date-rape trial, and speakers such as law professor  Catharine MacKinnon.

Oct 16, 1987

Roosenraad Denies Knowledge of Assaults

Despite having received at least three accusations of rape against Poe and two against Foe, and having personally adjudicated cases against both, Roosenraad tells the Carletonian he had not been “informed of any rapes or criminal sexual assaults” the previous year.

Nov 4, 1987

“Poe” Back in Front of Judicial Hearing Board

A woman says that in October, Poe kidnapped and held her for hours, raping her and threatening to kill her. When she told Roosenraad, he said she couldn’t prove anything because she hadn’t been to a doctor. He charged Poe with “advances without sanctions,” or unwanted touching and kissing. The JHB interrogates the victim, asking if she enjoyed the rape, how often she’s had oral sex, and if she does it on a first date. This being Poe’s second appearance before them, he’s given a one-year suspension. The survivor later reports becoming depressed and suicidal.

Nov 1987

Survivors Protest Leniency for Rapist

Five survivors of Poe assaults approach Roosenraad. One, back from her year-long leave of absence, tells Roosenraad Poe assaulted her twice the previous year. Roosenraad says it’s too late to file a complaint, and she leaves the school for good, forfeiting her Carleton education.

Nov 1987

No Appeals Allowed?

The student kidnapped and raped by Poe—the fourth to accuse him of rape—said President Lewis told her there was no way to appeal his penalty and that during several conversations indicated “what happened to me was not an educational issue,” it was a “peripheral issue, and therefore he had no further obligation to me.” She does go to the board of appeals and then on to the board of trustees, but both uphold the one-year suspension. 

Nov 13, 1987

Women Athletes Deprived of Home Court Advantage

Though women’s teams are allowed to compete in the bigger and better West Gym, they are only allowed to train there after men’s practice times are scheduled. To alleviate the “mounting resentment” of female athletes, the Physical Education and Athletics Department promises to ensure equal practice time regardless of gender.

Nov 13, 1987

Student Leadership Low on Women

Carletonian op-ed suggests that one reason women are underrepresented in the College Council (two out of nine) and Carleton Student Association (five out of sixteen, with all three top posts held by men) is that their time and energy is siphoned off by having to organize responses to sexism and sexual harassment.

March 22, 1988

Title IX restored

Congress overrules Reagan’s veto and enacts the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987, reversing Grove City College;  educational institutions receiving federal funds must apply Title IX to all programs.

April 10,1988

Pioneer Press: “Harassment Battle Embroils Carleton”

Unknowingly replicating actions taken in 1976, students go to the media to pressure the college into taking sexual assault more seriously. The paper publishes a news story about the problem, but then undermines it with an editorial arguing that concerns raised by “a dozen students, mostly women,” are “not convincing evidence” that anything is “seriously awry.”

Sept 1988

Rapist Peter Poe Returns From Suspension

Despite Roosenraad’s promise to one of Poe’s previous assault victims that Poe had been ordered not to have any contact with her, Poe harasses her. Roosenraad tells her since he didn’t put the order in writing there’s nothing he can do about it now and discourages her from filing a new complaint, saying Poe might hurt her if she doesn’t just drop it. 

Jan 1, 1989

Theory of Intersectionality Introduced

In a critique of institutions, laws, and policies, as well as white feminism and antiracist movements, civil rights attorney Kimberle Crenshaw proposes a lens for viewing how overlapping social identities contribute to oppression, discrimination, and privilege.

Jan 7, 1989

“Frank Foe” Rapes Another Student

Six months after hearing Roosenraad lectures a victim in front of Foe, saying her drinking made him question the validity of her complaint, Foe follows an inebriated student into her room and rapes her while she passes in and out of consciousness. Roosenraad warns this victim that if she calls the police he won’t be able to kick Foe off campus until they're finished with the case. She opts not to report Foe to the police. He submits a charge of “physical harassment” to the Judicial Hearing Board.

Feb 24,1989

Op-ed: We’re Too Easy on Rapists

In a near-duplication of an editorial published in 1981, Carletonian writes that the college’s “nonchalant” attitude discourages sexual assault victims from filing complaints and endangers those who do.

March 6, 1989 

JHB: Our Hands Are Tied

After a second woman accuses him rape, Frank Foe is found guilty of “physical harassment.” Explaining he can’t be expelled without two convictions specifically of “sexual assault,” the board suspends him for one year. The survivor becomes depressed, takes numerous incompletes, and then fails some courses before she is expelled.

March 20,1989

“Foe” Returns During Suspension

Shortly after he’s suspended, Foe is allowed by Roosenraad to return for the trimester final exams. 

March 24, 1989

“Foe” Rapes Again and Is Expelled 

Yet another woman accuses Foe of rape and he is expelled.

May 11, 1989

“Foe” Back After Expulsion 

Roosenraad again invites Foe back, for his comps exam. Foe’s victims are shocked to hear he’s on campus. Roosenraad tells one, “I don’t know what you’re worried about, he’s not hurting anyone.” But other students protest, and he’s escorted off campus after the exam. The incident causes an uproar, and Lewis issues an all-campus memo defending Roosenraad. 

May 19, 1989

Victims Pen Op-Ed 

Two victims write that if Foe had been allowed to graduate, it would have nullified “everything we endured in pressing charges.” Roosenraad promises Foe will not be allowed to graduate, but Foe later says that Roosenraad advised him to complete his coursework elsewhere and then apply for his Carleton diploma. Carleton doesn’t disclose if he was allowed to graduate.

May 19, 1989

Your Rape Is Making Me Uncomfortable 

Next to the survivors’ op-ed, a letter from another student draws on the language of the policy itself to suggest that the people being robbed of the “full enjoyment of the benefits, climate or opportunities of learning, working or living as a member of the community” are those forced to live in fear of being accused. He says the discourse is creating “a climate hostile to discussion and debate on campus.” 

For more infomation and details about the Poe story, read:

Oct 27,1989

Safety Last

The coordinator of the student-run escort service reveals that the administration has refused to grant work-study status to the understaffed volunteer program since 1984. The Carletonian reports that Roosenraad says the service is disqualified from work-study because it’s “sexist,” and Lewis dismisses it as a “taxi service.”

Dec 2, 1989

Sexual Harassment Policy Gutted

The SPC proposes policy revisions including removing the dean from case investigations, providing legal training for the JHB, and addressing how college procedures could work in tandem with criminal investigations. They’re flown to campus during winter break to review, but according to the Carletonian, they’re shown instead a revision drafted by a legal consultant reporting to President Lewis. This version strips the policy not only of the students’proposals but also changes won previously (see April 7, 1987), eliminating student advisors and completely omitting the term “sexual assault.”

Dec 17, 1989

Sexual Assault Survivors File Suit 

Four of the nine women who reported being assaulted by Frank Foe or Peter Poe sue the college, claiming Carleton and Roosenraad failed to provide an environment “reasonably free from physical danger, sexual harassment, and criminal sexual assault,” and contending their assaults were the “direct result” of allowing known assailants to remain enrolled, discouraging victims from going to the police, and mishandling complaints and adjudication. They say they endured substantial physical and emotional pain, and that their education suffered. Students on campus remain unaware of the lawsuit for another 15 months.