UConn President Susan Herbst's Response to Sexual Assault Claims Draw Backlash from Students and State Lawmakes
ByThe negative backlash following University of Connecticut (UConn) president Susan Herbst since her Board to Trustees address Wednesday has not ended, with students and lawmakers outspokenly upset, the Huffington Post reported.
Sunday, several students wrote messages in chalk around the campus, displaying messages like "We are your students. Please listen to us. We are Huskies too." They also wrote various sexual assault statistics as well.
One of the students, involved in the chalking, UConn junior Brittnie Carrier, said she was discouraged by Herbst's staunch defense of the campus police and her conviction in saying the school did not have a problem with sexual assaults.
Herbst addressed the school's Board of Trustees Wednesday, two days after a group of seven current and former UConn students filed federal Title IX and Clery Act complaints with the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights (OCR). The complaints alleged that the school did not properly support rape victims on campus and also did not seek justice for them as well.
"UConn implied that there are ulterior motives behind the Title IX complaint, doubting the experiences and realities of the survivors both on the complaint and just on our campus," Carrier said. "I'm tired of Herbst hiding behind her gender. I'm not denying her experiences, but being a woman doesn't automatically make you an ally to us. It doesn't mean you have an in-depth knowledge of the toxicity of this culture. It just makes your denial hurt more."
Now the school has more than outrage from the student body to worry about, as State Senate Minority Leader John McKinney (R-Fairfield) and Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) urging the university to examine its own sexual misconduct policies.
McKinney, who is a known supporter of Herbst, said she was "too defensive and too dismissive" in her Board of Trustees address.
"I was disappointed in her statements," McKinney told The Huffington Post. "I don't believe this situation is one where you act defensively to protect the brand of UConn. These are extraordinarily troubling allegations."
High-profile civil rights attorney Gloria Allred, representing the students filing the complaints, said Herbst's "self-serving" comments are the heart of the problem.
"The problem is that President Herbst does not want to acknowledge that there is a problem," Allred said. "She wants to make believe that all of these women that have filed complaints against UConn are malcontents that simply have it wrong."