Jennifer Yoder writes
Ohio State Students Support Plaintiff in Case Alleging University Wrongdoing in Rape Case

On June 6, members of a student organization at The Ohio State University sent the president of the school over 500 letters requesting that the university admit to failing to respond appropriately to a rape case in 2002.

"You, like a person, should have the integrity to stand up and admit when you've made a mistake," said Jennifer Yoder, co-chair of Women and Allies Rising in Resistance, a student organization dedicated to fighting violence against women.

Yoder addressed a group of around 30 at a press conference held for the letter send-off. University officials hovered in the back of the room, and a camera was sent from university relations to record the event. University spokeswoman Elizabeth Conlisk asked for a copy of Yoder's speech, and headed to a back room to speak off the record to reporters, declining comment on the lawsuit.

In 2002 on OSU's campus, a student named Jeremy Goldstein sexually violated another student. OSU’s response, after finding him in violation of OSU’s sexual misconduct policy, was simply to move him to another dorm, alerting no one in the new or old dorm as to the reason for this move, making a conscious and intentional decision to permit the risk of Jeremy Goldstein to be a continued presence on campus.

Only one month later in his new dorm he raped another woman, Jane Doe. Despite reporting the assault, telling Ohio State that the perpetrator’s name was Jeremy, that he had been recently moved into Smith Hall, and exactly where he was living there, OSU refused or was unable to make the connection that this was indeed the same Jeremy who they had just moved to Smith Hall for sexually violating another woman.

The complaints about Goldstein continued to pour in, including four complaints on his new floor of harassment or fear of his temper/demeanor, and an incident in which he punched a woman in the face in broad daylight in front of the dorm. As a result of code of conduct violations Jeremy Goldstein was shuffled to three different dorms, and eventually to an apartment just across the street from campus.

Despite OSU’s acknowledgement of the risk Goldstein posed, he was not suspended and barred from campus until August 26th, 2003, over 16 months after Jane Doe’s complaint. In the time between her complaint in February of 2002 and his intermediate suspension in August 2003, OSU spent much of the time ignoring Jane Doe, calling it “empowering the victim to make her own choices." In September of 2003 Goldstein was permanently expelled from The Ohio State University, and was later convicted in a criminal court of gross sexual imposition.

OSU's only public statement about the case has been to send media copies of a recent motion to dismiss the case. The motion claims no responsibility in the case, indicating that the plaintiff, Jane Doe, could have prevented the assault herself had she made better choices.

Yoder found this to be a victim-blaming response. "It alarms me that the motion is very similar to a response from a defense attorney for a rapist."

Goldstein is on probation, attending Baruch College in New York City.

Jane Doe now attends school at Kent State.