Sarah Lawrence College

Date: Apr 28 2018
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
DO NOT SEND YOUR DAUGHTERS HERE.

I was sexually assaulted by a classmate at Sarah Lawrence college in 2012 in the first week of my freshman year.

When I told a friend of mine about it, she reported it to the school, who sent a woman to talk to me named Natalie Gross. Despite knowing what I was about to disclose based on my friend's report, she did not identify herself as a mandated reporter until after I had already told her my story. Instead, she said that I was in a "safe space" and could tell her anything, which I understood to imply confidentiality. After I told her what happened, she told me I needed to come with her to Public Safety, where a police officer was waiting to speak to me. I had never intended to report my perpetrator to the school, let alone the police, but I was not given another choice.

When I showed reluctance to repeat my story to the police officer, he told me it sounded like I didn't really know whether anything had happened to me and accused me of "trying to ruin the rest of someone's life." He yelled that I could either give him a name to make an arrest or stop wasting his time, and that I "better be sure I knew what I was talking about." Both the officer and the Director of Public Safety, Larry Hoffman, subjected me to an aggressive line of questioning about exactly what I had been drinking, smoking, and where I had been prior to my assault. The Dean of Wellness at the time, Paige Crandall, sent me an email threatening me with a conduct meeting after I admitted to having drank the night of my assault. Despite having no statement from me identifying my perpetrator and against my wishes, she scheduled a meeting with my perpetrator, during which she identified me as his accuser but took no disciplinary action.

When I objected to the way my case was being handled, the Title IX coordinator, who also served as the Dean of Student Life, Allen Green, began a pattern of retaliatory actions against me, including informing my mother that I was facing expulsion for drinking and actually suggesting she institutionalize me. Thanks to the Paige Crandall informing my perpetrator that I had accused him, I faced harassment from him and his friends to the point that I lost the will to live.

My rapist graduated from Sarah Lawrence in 2015. I was expelled when I attempted suicide in my dorm room before finishing a semester.

My don, Kim Ferguson, was incredible, supportive, and honestly one of the only reasons I made it as long as I did. Some of the professors care about their students, but the administration is mostly made up of victim-blaming misogynists who don't give a flying fuck about you.

Sarah Lawrence pretends to be a paragon of inclusivity, but they treat survivors like liabilities instead of human beings.

People think sexual assault doesn't happen at liberal arts schools, but it does.

The administration does nothing to prevent it, and everything to cover it up.

Fuck this place.

Don't make the same mistake I did. Don't give them your money.