Tufts Students Nominate Sexual Assault Activist for Honorary Degree
The human cost of college administrations’ negligence and ineptitude when it comes to handling rape allegations is monstrously high. In far too many cases, the victim, denied a fair hearing process, drops out while his or her assailant graduates unscathed. This is something we should keep in mind even as activists, administrations and lawmakers endeavor to find a future solution: countless students, poorly served under the old and extant policies, are still struggling in the aftermath of institutional neglect.
As a poignant reminder of this, Tufts students have nominated Wagatwe Wanjuki for an honorary Tufts degree. Wanjuki was expelled from Tufts after being sexually assaulted in 2008 — years before the issue of campus rape received widespread media attention. At the time, Tufts refused to investigate her claim; faced with such callous indifference and denied proper accommodations, her academic performance suffered (a common occurrence among sexual assault survivors). Even though she was never on academic probation and her GPA was high enough for her to graduate, she was told in 2009 that she must withdraw from the university due to academic concerns. Her assailant, of course, graduated just fine.