UO students demand accountability after five sexual assault reports in school’s opening week
By Cameryn Salinas
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EUGENE, Oregon (KEZI) — Students gathered to protest after the University of Oregon issued a crime warning reporting five sexual assaults on or near campus in less than a week into the new school year.
The protest was held Sunday afternoon outside the university’s EMU. Students from Oregon State University and Lane Community College were also expected to join. Protesters are demanding accountability, showing support for survivors and calling for systemic change in how the university responds to sexual violence. The university issued a safety alert midday on Sept. 30. Five sexual assaults were reported on or near campus in a span of just days. Four involved UO students, while a fifth occurred near Alton Baker Dog Park, where police made one arrest.
UO is not releasing additional details about the reports. Police say there is no indication the five cases are connected.
The alert, combined with national outrage over a sexual assault case at Cornell, has prompted a bigger question: What happens after a survivor reports?
“Sometimes when we get reports, it means our system is working,” said Dr. Jimmy Howard, the university’s dean of students. “It means that people trust us enough to bring the concerns forward, which is not always the case in higher education.”
Howard said the university has confidential advocates available around the clock. Students can seek support without immediately going to police.
“We have a team, we call it the Care and Advocacy Team, and there are trained state advocates on that group who are confidential,” Howard said. “And so whether you call us, walk in, we’re going to get you to someone right away to make sure that we can help you.”
UO says students receive sexual-violence prevention training. The university has invested in survivor-informed and trauma-centered processes.
But one former UO student says her experience was very different. Emily Bly was an incoming freshman in 2017 when she says she was raped by another UO student. She reported the assault to Eugene police and the university in 2018.
Bly said Eugene police dropped her case within hours. The university’s Title IX process then took eight months.
“I had to do almost all the legwork for my case to get anything moving and anything going,” Bly said. “The University of Oregon and the Title IX program was having me reiterate to multiple different people the same thing and the same facts all the time. I constantly had to relive that for eight months. I always felt like I was the one being interrogated.”
Bly ultimately submitted more than 80 pages of evidence. She felt she was being asked to act as her own lawyer.
“I think it is unfair because I was doing work that a legal team should be doing and that we’re paying our tuition to do, but I was having to do it all by myself,” Bly said.
Title IX requires schools to address sexual harassment and sexual violence by providing supportive measures to students. Those measures can include things like academic extensions, schedule or housing changes and no-contact orders. The university’s investigation is also separate from any criminal investigation by police.
That distinction is important in Bly’s case. She said while she eventually got the outcome she wanted from the university, she had to fight for it. The other student was expelled from the university and trespassed from campus.
“I was one of the lucky ones,” Bly said. “I realized because I did get justice, he did get expelled and he got trespassed and a few other things. But I pushed that so hard and I was able to get that result because I worked for it and not because anyone else helped me to do that.”
Bly said that is what she worries about for other survivors. Not everyone who reports an assault will have the time, energy or ability to keep advocating for themselves, she said.
Howard said UO continues to evaluate its response and look for ways to improve.
“We’re consistently learning and trying to, again, continue to evolve as the campus changes to it,” Howard said.
For Bly, the recent reports at UO brought her own experience back to the surface. After she posted about her experience online this week, other women began contacting her with similar stories.
“I think it was a perfect storm this week,” Bly said. “It was the Cornell, it was my post on TikTok and then also the University of Oregon coming out. Those moving pieces just unveiled this horrible system behind the scenes and seeing my Instagram just blowing up with girls with similar experiences from the University of Oregon specifically. It’s like, oh no, we’re not alone.”
That is the reason students are rallying. Not just because of the five recent reports, but because they say those reports have reopened a larger conversation about how sexual-assault cases are handled at UO.
“If they wanted to change anything, they need to have a way bigger Title IX section and they have to have actual legal representation for all these women,” Bly said. “Another thing is they need to get this done faster. The process is so grueling and so ridiculous.”
Both UO police and Eugene police are continuing to investigate the five recently reported cases. They ask anyone with information to contact law enforcement. For students seeking confidential support, the UO SAFE hotline is available 24/7.
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