HYDE PARK — Veronica Portillo Heap says she spent more than a year trying to get the University of Chicago to do more to help the victims of sexual violence on campus, and when she became a victim herself, she turned to the federal government to intervene.
The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights this week said it would investigate Heap’s allegations that the university failed to properly educate students about sexual violence, the third investigation about sexual violence the department has launched at the university since 2013.
Heap said that when she started at U. of C. in 2011, the way the university educated students about sexual assault was having students sit through a program warning them about hookup culture and advising students to intervene if they saw a situation that could lead to sexual violence.
"I want the university to change procedures and policies for other people,” she said.
At first, she found the prevention efforts laughable, she said. But then she got involved as an activist with the Phoenix Survivors Alliance trying to fill the gap she and others felt the university had left in helping the victims of sexual assault.
She said after she was sexually assaulted off campus in 2014, she realized activists couldn’t fill the gaps, and the university needed to be forced to change.
“I didn’t know if the university could do anything for me after I was raped,” Heap said.
In the complaint, Heap’s attorney alleges that the university’s resources for the victims of sexual assault were so scattered and difficult to access that even someone as savvy as Heap, who had been working on issues of sexual violence at the university for more than a year, had difficulty getting help. The complaint said that because the assault wasn't by another student, she didn't think the school was obligated to help her.
The complaint alleges that Heap was offered counseling, but was never told that she could contact police, which she never did because she was "intimidated by the idea of approaching the Chicago Police Department."
And she said she wasn’t informed of her rights under Title IX regulations, which protect students against discrimination.
The complaint also criticizes Sex Signals, an anti-sexual assault education program attended by students during orientation in 2011, for not providing information to students about the laws against sexual violence and discrimination or the university’s policies about sexual violence and resources available to students through the university. It said in surveys about the program, students "have not found it effective."
In July, Heap filed a complaint with the Department of Education, which she felt could force the university to change. She said she had seen how effective a similar investigation had been in 2013 in prompting changes at the university.
On Feb. 3, the department opened two new investigations at the university, a little more than a week before the university announced sweeping changes to how it educates students about sexual violence.
Jeremy Manier, a spokesman for the university, said the school has overhauled its education on sexual violence and rewritten its sexual harassment policies in the last year.
“As Provost [Eric] Isaacs noted in a recent message to campus, the university has taken numerous steps over the last year to enhance its compliance with Title IX and to prevent and address instances of sexual misconduct,” said Manier. “The ongoing [Office of Civil Rights] reviews are in response to complaints that predate the action the university has taken in the past year.”
On Feb. 15, Isaacs announced the launch of UMatter, a website consolidating all the policies and resources available to the victims of sexual assault on campus, which students had complained in the past was scattered across university departments and difficult to find.
The university also announced mandatory sexual misconduct awareness training for all students, faculty and staff starting July 1 and more resources for the new Title IX coordinator, Sarah Wake.
The university also rewrote its policy on harassment, discrimination and sexual misconduct, which took effect July 1.
“Acts of sexual misconduct, which encompass a range of conduct from sexual assault to sexual harassment, violate the standards of our community and are unacceptable,” Isaacs wrote in a September letter to campus announcing changes to the sexual harassment policy. “The university is fully committed to taking the necessary action to prevent, correct, and address acts of sexual misconduct.”
Heap, who graduated in 2015 with a degree in history and gender and sexuality, said she was excited about the changes, but said she felt the university wouldn’t have acted if another student hadn’t filed a complaint that started a Department of Education investigation in 2013.
The department said it continues to investigate a 2013 complaint from Olivia Ortiz, who alleges the university failed to properly respond when she was sexually assaulted.
In an interview Wednesday, Ortiz said she’s encouraged by many of the new education programs for students on sexual violence since she filed her complaint, but she still thinks the university is behind where it needs to be in protecting students.
“In theory, all these changes are great, [but] when when you see it in practice, administrators are still antagonistic with survivors,” said Ortiz, who returned to the university in the fall to study linguistics after taking a two-year leave to seek medical treatment for the trauma from her assault.
She said she’s highly disappointed with how long the federal investigation has taken.
“I am very frustrated right now because it has been under investigation for two and a half years,” Ortiz said.
She said things have been getting better on campus with more open discussion about sexual violence after the investigation started in 2013. She also noted other developments such as a professor quitting after being accused of sexually harassing a drunk student at an off-campus party and condemnation of another professor's "rape joke" during a commencement address.
“Things are better, you can’t deny that,” Ortiz said.
She also attributed the positive changes on campus to the federal investigation and student activists putting pressure on the administration.
A third investigation also was opened on Feb. 3, but few details have been released about the complaint that prompted the investigation.
The university and Department of Education both declined to provide any details about the nature of the complaint that prompted the third investigation.
Ortiz and Heap both said they were unaware of the claims in the third complaint.
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:
