What evil lurks: sexual assault is a serious problem at universities, and our schools are overlooking the solution
York University’s Vanier College welcome brochures contain helpful information for frosh week. They list clubs to join and an orientation lunch for parents. They also tell you what to do in the event of a sexual assault. What they don’t mention is the statistical likelihood of a sexual assault or the violence that has occurred at York in the past.
During frosh week of 2007, two young men, Daniel Katsnelson and Justin Connort, entered Vanier under the guise of helping a drunk resident and began wandering the halls, trying the dorm room doors to see if they were unlocked. At roughly 2:45 a.m., they entered a room on the seventh floor and woke the 17‑year-old student inside. “Do you want to get lucky with a couple of Jewish guys?” one of them asked. She said no, but the men took turns with her anyway. Katsnelson raped her and then snapped photos on his cell of Connort assaulting her. Afterward, they entered a second room. The occupant, also a first-year student, woke up to one of them rubbing up against her and told him to leave. They entered a third room, sat on the bed of a sleepy young woman, and spoke briefly with her before moving on to the room of an exchange student, where one of the attackers announced, “I’ve never made out with a black girl.” When the student resisted, the men walked out and entered their fifth and final room. Katsnelson raped the 18-year-old inside. The first rape victim bled for a week. The second has since left York. Both are still in counselling.
These men roamed that dorm unimpeded for two hours, from the seventh floor down to the fourth, the third, and then back up to the 13th. All five of the women whose rooms were invaded were first-year students. None had locked their doors.
York, which is facing a $3.5-million civil lawsuit from the first rape victim, has, not surprisingly, beefed up security measures. It has enhanced its walk-home services, added Go-Safe shuttle buses, increased self-defence classes and handed out thousands of whistles. York has blanketed the campus with panic buttons and closed-circuit television cameras. Most significantly, as a direct consequence of the 2007 assaults, every residence, including Vanier, now has a security officer on duty from 8:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., and visitors are required to sign in.
These are important measures, to be sure, but they’re not enough. Here’s an idea that doesn’t cost anything: be brutally honest with students and parents about what really happens on campus and disclose statistics on sexual assault. Without a fact-based reality check, students might not bother waiting an extra 10 minutes for a shuttle bus or an escort to the parking lot. Maybe if York had listed its sexual assault numbers in its welcome brochure three years ago, no one would have gone to sleep that night with doors unlocked.
York doesn’t hide campus sexual assault information, but it doesn’t make it easy to find, either. I spent hours searching for statistics on-line, tallying up daily alert bulletins, weekly and annual reports, and information from the campus security Web site. I found 27 reported sexual assaults in the past decade and four attempted ones. (Canada eliminated “rape” from the Criminal Code in 1983. The legal term “sexual assault” encompasses everything from unwanted touching to forced intercourse.) Many attackers struck during the day, ambushing women in dorms, library stacks, walkways and parking lots. Sometimes they dragged them into bushes or fields.
When I asked Alex Bilyk, York’s chief spokesperson, to double-check my numbers, he said that I hadn’t found them all—that in fact York had 66 reported incidents of sexual assault from 2000 to 2009. There were 14 in 2009 alone. Thirteen were characterized as unwanted touching, including by strangers at the library and at campus bus stops. The 14th was a date rape. And those incidents likely represent a tiny fraction of the total; according to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, more than 90 per cent of sexual assaults are never reported to police.
Of course, the exact number that go unreported is impossible to determine, but I don’t doubt it’s high. Here’s my personal contribution to the stats. The summer I turned 16, I needed inoculations for a trip to Asia. The doctor asked me to lie down on his examination table. And then he put his hand in my underpants. “How does that feel?” he asked, massaging my clitoris. Until that moment, I didn’t know I had one. But I never reported the assault. I was too confused and humiliated to say anything, even to my mother, who was sitting outside in the waiting room.
I don’t mean to single out York. The University of Toronto doesn’t make its sexual assault record easily accessible to the public, either. Laurie Stephens, a U of T spokesperson, told me, “There has not been one [sexual assault] in the two years I’ve been here.” She referred me to the Toronto Police Service for numbers for the past decade. The police said they were too busy and told me to file a Freedom of Information request.
So I did my own research. On-line, I found references to numerous sexual assaults at U of T, including a particularly brutal one in 2008. I called Stephens back to tell her that she was wrong. When she bothered to check, she found that the campus police had recorded 41 incidents since 2000 at all three campuses: downtown, Mississauga and Scarborough.
Why should anyone have to work so hard to gather information that serves the public? In the U.S., all universities that participate in federal financial-aid programs are required by law to disclose their crime statistics for the previous three years. The law, which came into effect in 1990, is called the Clery Act, named after Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old freshman who was raped and murdered in 1986 in her dorm at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Her grieving parents later learned that 38 violent crimes had been committed on campus in the three years leading up to their daughter’s death, but no one had told the students.
As a result, Columbia University, for example, posts easy-to-find charts on its Web site. So does Harvard. With three clicks of my mouse, I learned that from 2006 to 2008 Harvard had 82 reported rapes. (American law still uses the term “rape.”) The U.S. Department of Education monitors Clery Act compliance and can impose penalties of $27,500 per violation.
I believe we need our own Clery Act. Without it, universities in Canada will continue to provide a false sense of security. Even with all the self-defence classes and security cameras and free whistles floating around, campuses are perceived to be safe environments, where 17-year-old kids, away from their parents often for the first time, can drop their guards and experiment with adulthood. Let’s acknowledge that university campuses are porous, no matter what measures are in place.
In the past few decades, several large psychological studies in Canada and in the U.S. have shown that a significant number—between 30 and 60 per cent, depending on the study—of college-aged males say they would commit sexual assault if they were certain they would not get caught.
In an attempt to determine if Katsnelson understood the consequences of his actions, a corrections official asked what he thought the victims would take away from these crimes. “They might now know to keep their doors locked,” Katsnelson said. In a terrible sense, the rapist was right.
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York University’s Vanier College welcome brochures contain helpful information for frosh week. They list clubs to join and an orientation lunch for parents. They also tell you what to do in the event of a sexual assault. What they don’t mention is the statistical likelihood of a sexual assault or the violence that has occurred at York in the past.
During frosh week of 2007, two young men, Daniel Katsnelson and Justin Connort, entered Vanier under the guise of helping a drunk resident and began wandering the halls, trying the dorm room doors to see if they were unlocked. At roughly 2:45 a.m., they entered a room on the seventh floor and woke the 17‑year-old student inside. “Do you want to get lucky with a couple of Jewish guys?” one of them asked. She said no, but the men took turns with her anyway. Katsnelson raped her and then snapped photos on his cell of Connort assaulting her. Afterward, they entered a second room. The occupant, also a first-year student, woke up to one of them rubbing up against her and told him to leave. They entered a third room, sat on the bed of a sleepy young woman, and spoke briefly with her before moving on to the room of an exchange student, where one of the attackers announced, “I’ve never made out with a black girl.” When the student resisted, the men walked out and entered their fifth and final room. Katsnelson raped the 18-year-old inside. The first rape victim bled for a week. The second has since left York. Both are still in counselling.
These men roamed that dorm unimpeded for two hours, from the seventh floor down to the fourth, the third, and then back up to the 13th. All five of the women whose rooms were invaded were first-year students. None had locked their doors.
York, which is facing a $3.5-million civil lawsuit from the first rape victim, has, not surprisingly, beefed up security measures. It has enhanced its walk-home services, added Go-Safe shuttle buses, increased self-defence classes and handed out thousands of whistles. York has blanketed the campus with panic buttons and closed-circuit television cameras. Most significantly, as a direct consequence of the 2007 assaults, every residence, including Vanier, now has a security officer on duty from 8:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m., and visitors are required to sign in.
These are important measures, to be sure, but they’re not enough. Here’s an idea that doesn’t cost anything: be brutally honest with students and parents about what really happens on campus and disclose statistics on sexual assault. Without a fact-based reality check, students might not bother waiting an extra 10 minutes for a shuttle bus or an escort to the parking lot. Maybe if York had listed its sexual assault numbers in its welcome brochure three years ago, no one would have gone to sleep that night with doors unlocked.
York doesn’t hide campus sexual assault information, but it doesn’t make it easy to find, either. I spent hours searching for statistics on-line, tallying up daily alert bulletins, weekly and annual reports, and information from the campus security Web site. I found 27 reported sexual assaults in the past decade and four attempted ones. (Canada eliminated “rape” from the Criminal Code in 1983. The legal term “sexual assault” encompasses everything from unwanted touching to forced intercourse.) Many attackers struck during the day, ambushing women in dorms, library stacks, walkways and parking lots. Sometimes they dragged them into bushes or fields.
When I asked Alex Bilyk, York’s chief spokesperson, to double-check my numbers, he said that I hadn’t found them all—that in fact York had 66 reported incidents of sexual assault from 2000 to 2009. There were 14 in 2009 alone. Thirteen were characterized as unwanted touching, including by strangers at the library and at campus bus stops. The 14th was a date rape. And those incidents likely represent a tiny fraction of the total; according to the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, more than 90 per cent of sexual assaults are never reported to police.
Of course, the exact number that go unreported is impossible to determine, but I don’t doubt it’s high. Here’s my personal contribution to the stats. The summer I turned 16, I needed inoculations for a trip to Asia. The doctor asked me to lie down on his examination table. And then he put his hand in my underpants. “How does that feel?” he asked, massaging my clitoris. Until that moment, I didn’t know I had one. But I never reported the assault. I was too confused and humiliated to say anything, even to my mother, who was sitting outside in the waiting room.
I don’t mean to single out York. The University of Toronto doesn’t make its sexual assault record easily accessible to the public, either. Laurie Stephens, a U of T spokesperson, told me, “There has not been one [sexual assault] in the two years I’ve been here.” She referred me to the Toronto Police Service for numbers for the past decade. The police said they were too busy and told me to file a Freedom of Information request.
So I did my own research. On-line, I found references to numerous sexual assaults at U of T, including a particularly brutal one in 2008. I called Stephens back to tell her that she was wrong. When she bothered to check, she found that the campus police had recorded 41 incidents since 2000 at all three campuses: downtown, Mississauga and Scarborough.
Why should anyone have to work so hard to gather information that serves the public? In the U.S., all universities that participate in federal financial-aid programs are required by law to disclose their crime statistics for the previous three years. The law, which came into effect in 1990, is called the Clery Act, named after Jeanne Clery, a 19-year-old freshman who was raped and murdered in 1986 in her dorm at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Her grieving parents later learned that 38 violent crimes had been committed on campus in the three years leading up to their daughter’s death, but no one had told the students.
As a result, Columbia University, for example, posts easy-to-find charts on its Web site. So does Harvard. With three clicks of my mouse, I learned that from 2006 to 2008 Harvard had 82 reported rapes. (American law still uses the term “rape.”) The U.S. Department of Education monitors Clery Act compliance and can impose penalties of $27,500 per violation.
I believe we need our own Clery Act. Without it, universities in Canada will continue to provide a false sense of security. Even with all the self-defence classes and security cameras and free whistles floating around, campuses are perceived to be safe environments, where 17-year-old kids, away from their parents often for the first time, can drop their guards and experiment with adulthood. Let’s acknowledge that university campuses are porous, no matter what measures are in place.
In the past few decades, several large psychological studies in Canada and in the U.S. have shown that a significant number—between 30 and 60 per cent, depending on the study—of college-aged males say they would commit sexual assault if they were certain they would not get caught.
In an attempt to determine if Katsnelson understood the consequences of his actions, a corrections official asked what he thought the victims would take away from these crimes. “They might now know to keep their doors locked,” Katsnelson said. In a terrible sense, the rapist was right.){kind=link}
And you’re focusing on York University because…it just happens at York? “be brutally honest with students and parents about what really happens on campus”…at all universities so that all students can have beefed up security, not just the ones at York.
The end.
There’s two pages kandeezie.
30- 60%? What is wrong with the male population these days? Is it because females are gaining more on the pay scale than males these days? Males can’t take it so they respond by being brutal beast towards females? Guys get your act together…stop being sulks. Clue in and be productive contributors in society.
So I heard a chilling story tonight. A York-student friend of a friend was (recently?) gang-raped after being held at gunpoint outside her home just off campus. Why haven’t I heard anything about this on the news? Why don’t any of the students I know at York know anything about this?
Shame on these universities for not informing their students and pretending it doesn’t happen. It happens in all schools from primary to college as well it might be that they don’t want the publicity or deter people from the schools but that is very dishonest and dangerous thinking. Only half the time it is an outsider the rest is the student population themselves. If it isn’t that it is bullying as well. I think there should be something to cover all schools and universities covering this topic. As the students have a right to protect themselves hiding these stats and not having self protection built into the curriculum is hurting students. Being raped or assaulted in any manner is not funny whether it is someone you know or not. It can be very damaging and painful and women and girls should be given opportunities to educate themselves and learn that even if it is someone you know who is the perpetrator it should be reported. The police need to step up their game as well as I think a lot of the time it is them who also make it hard to report a rape. It is 2010 this year going into 11′ and still this is largely ignored and tolerated is stupid. If there is a petition to engage a similar law to protect all students and make sure all areas are covered then I would like to see it. After all the parents of these students pay a lot of money into the system, tax dollars etc and others work very hard to get scholarships and bursaries. If you want student loans as well paid back then protect them from these pervs who roam our streets and schools and do something and not wait for someone from Toronto Life or other newspapers to point it out.
The undisputed truth, unfortunately, is if a woman is going to get raped, it can happen whether they’re coming out of a movie theatre, or bar/nightclub, or in a Campus dorm room, or even in their own home, especially if they’re alone. The main factor of the problem is, we just have so much “sex” stuff thrown at us by the media, and even Modelling shows, and now the Internet, that it has generated a generation of sexual predators, far more active than “Pervs.” in the past. Men will always “get off” on women who seem “helpless”. The unfortunate “truth” of this is, when are they going to get “punished” back, enough!! Some men are just born to be “sick” individuals. But, when is this sort of thing going to stop? Probably never! So, measures have to be taken to “arrest” this sad problem. If girls are forewarned enough,and offered Defense classes, then that might bring down the numbers somewhat. But unfortunately, it’s not going to make the problem completely “go away”!
After the many sexual assaults that have occurred on campus at York University the university still does not have adequate video cameras in place along paths for security. They should be installing many more video cameras as the cost for these cameras have dropped dramatically in recent years and this would be a good deterent to crime.
York University also does not have an adequate “shooter on campus” policy as the doors to classrooms cannot be locked, there appears to be no room numbers listed inside the classrooms and other very basic processes found at other universities have not been put in place.
The York University Board of Governors needs to do its job to ensure the safety of students as a top priority.
Daniel Katsnelson has changed his name to Daniel Kaye.
this scumbag was sentenced to 8 years but will probably get out in 2.
Hopefully during his time in prison he’ll be asked the question ‘ do you want to get lucky with a couple of guys’
Daniel Kaye/Katsnelson deserves to be raped on a daily basis.
I’m not so sure schools are overlooking the problem – this is a bit far-fetched. I personally know a lot of individuals working in law enforcement and special constable duties who work day and night to make our campuses safer.
U of T Campus Police regularly partners with community and faculty and has even sponsored student projects and studies that give them access to campus crime statistics. 2 years ago I was a participant of such a study – campus police there have always been very helpful.
U of T Campus Police publishes crime stats going back to 1999 in their annual reports online. They are easy to find here: http://www.campuspolice.utoronto.ca/community-policing/annual-report.htm
Also, like any police jurisdiction in this country and as part of an age-old emphasis on community reporting, the “stats” are formally reported to StatsCan and made publicly available.
The issue with York is that it’s patrolled by powerless security guards, not actual police or Special Constables. The far-left types on that campus – paranoid over racial profiling and beholden to fossilized boomer profs spouting on about the ‘militarization’ of the campus – refuse to entertain the issue of actual police patrolling the grounds. The result? A crime-plagued campus.
I think Universities need to raise awareness on campus specifically to MEN and not to women (because rape has nothing to do with women). Men need to be addressed and told “this is not acceptable, this is not okay, and we will find you.” Kudos to a great article. I am a York alumni and I have never felt comfortable on campus at night (especially in that area of Toronto).
Thanks!
How about clear cut the bushes leaving on/y some mature trees and floodlights so no one can hide and there’s no place to be dragged …
inform new students of the dangers and provide precautionary solutions… travel in groups, always look alert and like you’re going somewhere. tell people where you’re going and when to expect you back…. implement a buddy system between 1st and 3rd tear students to help integrate new students. supply safe and reasonably priced parking.
I teach self-defence with Wen-Do women’s self-defence at York and elsewhere. This article, like much of the York and broader communities, makes it sound as though information and locking doors is the issue. As though the victims, having more information and control, will make different choices and that this will end rape. Rape is not dependent on victim behaviour. It happens because attackers, as the Katsnelson quote you include makes painfully clear, believe they are entitled. The issue of gender is crucial – men are raised to believe they are entitled to women’s bodies, yet you, York’s administration, do not mention this key issue. Not all sexual violence is men on women, but the vast vast majority is – not an accident, and something that, if unaddressed, continues to perpetuate the problem. You give lots of detail here about the women who were assaulted but not those who resisted – SUCCESSFULLY. Statistically, the only factor that makes a difference in sexual assault prevention is whether a woman fights back. Locking the doors isn’t nearly as safe a thing to do as taking a self-defence class. But that doesn’t change the responsibility, and onus for change – it’s not about what the women are doing.
Were there unsolved rapes around the year 1990?