Seven current or former UConn students this week said the university failed to protect them from sexual assault and, after learning about it, acted inappropriately or insufficiently. Celebrity civil rights attorney Gloria Allred is representing the women, who filed a Title IX complaint with the civil rights office of the U.S. Department of Education.
The complaint quickly drew reactions among UConn students and officialdom.
UConn President Susan Herbst and the chief of the university’s police department were slammed for responding defensively to the complaint.
Two state GOP leaders – including a candidate for governor — weighed in to ask for hearings, and they got slammed by at least one top Democrat who said he was totally in favor of hearings and why did the Republicans have to get all partisan about it.
Other Dems leaped in with both feet, followed soon by the governor, who said he also favored hearings.
One word in reaction to all of the above: Hallelujah. Let’s yell and debate and name-call and not stop talking about sexual assault until it’s understood by everyone that it is NOT sex. It’s assault and should be treated like the criminal act it is.
Also… and this is new:
The Mirror invites readers to browse through our new iBookstore. Feel free – and we do mean FREE – to access our first three e-books. More books are being planned, but for now, we’re offering the following on our virtual bookshelf:
* In “Vulnerable Connecticut,” you can see and read about what the storms of the last few years have done to our coastline.
* If you’re one of many who haven’t quite mastered how the Affordable Care Act affects you and your family, you’ll want to look at our guide to the ACA in Connecticut (the website for our state’s insurance marketplace, Access Health Ct, by the way, is working far better than the federal government’s site).
* And, you may have heard about the state’s major move into the bioscience industry by luring Jackson Labs to build on the site of the UConn Health Center in Farmington. Read Arielle Levin Becker’s story on this fascinating company in our third e-book.
Finally,
You can see a full week of Connecticut news on our website, www.ctmirror.org. But here are a few of our stories you shouldn’t miss:
* Glitch in 2011 Malloy/union pact rips hole in CT public colleges’ budgets
* CT lawmakers eye NY’s “Texting Zone” strategy for highway safety
* Connecticut bell factory at center of hot Senate campaign in Kentucky
* CT develops guide for getting insurers to pay for mental health, substance abuse care
* Romney’s PAC man in Foley’s corner
Have a great weekend….
Jenifer Frank
Mirror Editor