For one female student, that time last fall carried a far different range of emotions.
One night in late August 2013, she was escorted out of her residence hall by eight police officers after she reported being sexually assaulted the night before.
The student, who spoke to The State News on the condition of anonymity, claims she was drugged while in a male student’s room and that he proceeded to have sex with her while she was incapacitated.
Following an investigation initiated by MSU’s Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, or I3, the male student was found in violation of the school’s sexual harassment policy and was “permanently dismissed” from the university, according to documents from the investigation.
I3 investigations operate on a system of evidence that requires a “preponderance of evidence,” rather than evidence that would find someone guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Although he appealed the ruling twice, university officials upheld the ruling.
His attorneys are bringing a civil lawsuit against the university, alleging that officials violated his right to due process.
Ingham County Circuit Court judge Clinton Canady III will allow him to return to MSU during the proceedings.
For the complainant, her alleged attacker’s return to campus reinstates a feeling of fear.
“It’s completely ridiculous,” she said. “For the weeks he is here, it may not affect the university, but it affects me.”
On the night of Aug. 23, 2013, she alleges she and the student met at a party when he began to “act flirtatious” toward her.
According to documents from the I3 investigation, she told officials that he began asking her how many times she’d had sex, responding that he’d had sex seven times.
When she and a friend returned to a residence hall with him, she told The State News he invited the two into his room.
After losing to him in a game of water pong ?earlier in the night, she said he continued to remain persistent about how she “owed him a shot.”
She said he then poured her a shot of gin and three shots of UV Blue vodka.
Soon after, she told officials she felt “very fuzzy” and “paralyzed.”
While she was drinking the shots, she said the respondent went to the bathroom to ?“shotgun a beer,” but she said she didn’t think he actually drank anything all night.
Following the shots, she said she barely remembered anything except for the male ?student standing over her.
She woke up the next day not remembering what ?happened after the shots and ?feeling “sore, like (she) had sex,” according to investigation documents.
The male student declined to give his side of the story to university investigators at the time, but later voluntarily ?submitted to a polygraph test that corroborated his story about the sex being consensual.
“Obviously he’s going to think it’s consensual if I’m incapacitated,” she said of his claim. “How can I consent if I’m unconscious?”
According to an email sent to the female student, testing performed by Michigan State Police did not detect GHB or other drugs in the alcohol taken from the male student’s dorm room.
State News staff reporter Simon Schuster contributed to this report.
