Kent Best, SMU’s executive director of news and communications, issued the following statement in response to “Sweeping rape under the rug: SMU’s non-adversarial handling of sexual assault,” a story published by The Daily Campus on April 30:
“It is misleading to characterize SMU’s student judicial process as “secretive.” SMU’s student conduct process involves confidential student education records, which are subject to federal privacy laws. SMU will work with a student victim to file a case with the Dallas County District Attorney’s office on any sexual assault accusation, but it is the victim who must decide whether to proceed with that step toward prosecution.
“Unfortunately, very few victims make that choice. In recent years, two student victims have agreed to proceed with prosecution, but in both of those instances, the Dallas County District Attorney’s office rejected the cases. SMU works diligently to support its students who have been victims of criminal acts and will continue to encourage victims to file criminal charges with the Dallas County District Attorney’s office, which ultimately determines whether a case progresses to prosecution.
“Also, it is incorrect to say that SMU Police do not post sexual assaults to the police website. Any sexual assault reported to SMU Police is listed on the online log. If a victim chooses not to file a police report, it does not become part of the police crime log, although a campus crime may still be issued.”
Editor’s Note: Best’s response says the article is misleading because it characterizes SMU’s judicial process as “secretive.” However, that word never appears in the story. The story uses the word “secret” – defined as not known or meant to be known or seen by others, as in “secret plan,” not “secretive” – defined as characterized by the concealment of intentions and information such as ‘secretive’ deals. His statement also says the story incorrectly reports that “SMU police do not post sexual assaults to the police website.” The article did not say this. In fact, the story and accompanying graphic cite SMU police logs and crime alerts as the main sources of information regarding two dozen campus rapes reported in recent years.
The story does say SMU does not post online the number of students arrested annually for sexual assault or the number of these cases referred to judicial panels but does provide these figures for drug, alcohol and weapons violations. The story includes this link documenting these findings.
