Cornell case spotlights 'confusing' web of systems for reporting campus assaults

Typically, after a student reports an assault on campus, the university's Title IX office determines whether the alleged behaviour could constitute a violation of policy.

Eventually, both parties attend a hearing with a panel of faculty members or other mediators to present evidence and testimony in the case before a decision by the school is reached.

One of the biggest challenges sexual assault survivors face is simultaneously navigating the university and the criminal justice system, which "serve different purposes, operate under different rules and timelines, and lead to different outcomes", said Zoey Scheinblum-Brewer, a policy coordinator at the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, a nonprofit anti-sexual assault organisation.

"Unclear guidance about the options available through these parallel processes can create so much confusion and uncertainty that some students ultimately decide not to report," she said.

Mary said this process at her college was not clear to her when she made the decision to report the assault.

"For me, it would've been nice to know what I was getting into before it all happened. It felt like they were learning the process alongside me," she said of university officials.

While some colleges, like Cornell, have information sharing agreements with local police, Mary was told she had to go to police separately to file a report - a process she found physically exhausting.

Mary's lawyer says there was surveillance footage from the night showing her alleged rapist carrying her "slumped" over, and she had pictures of her bruises and bite marks. But police told Mary they did not have probable cause for an arrest, and that the district attorney wanted to leave it to university administration.

"I was left with this taste that because they knew that the college was 'handling' my investigation, that they could wipe their hands clean of it," she said.