Raising the volume: protesters against sexual assaults on campus stage "scream-in"Photo:Jon Gardiner

But at the time, "nothing seemed threatening," she says. "And I was traveling with a group of people from my dorm, which is what we'd been told to do."

The party moved upstairs to the room of two upperclassmen, including one who had been trained to be an official party monitor. (According to the university's alcohol policy, groups must register parties where alcohol is served and have designated party monitors to keep an eye on partygoers and intervene if necessary.) At some point, Johnson realized that everyone had drifted out of the room except her friend and the two upperclassmen. She recalls that the loud music in the room prevented conversation, and that soon one of the men was removing her clothes. The rest of the evening was a blur.

"I woke up the next day in my own bed, groggy and hung over," she recalls. "At first, I thought it was a bad dream, but then I started remembering pieces of what happened." She was filled with remorse and self-loathing. "I thought to myself, how did you already screw up everything so badly in your first week?"

In fact, experts say, she was the victim of an all too common occurrence. According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, an estimated 70,000 college students were victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape last year alone.

"Most, but certainly not all, students who are assaulted are assaulted early in their college careers," says Jean Leonard, director of Sexual Assault Support Services, which is part of the Women's Center at Duke. "The first six weeks carry the highest risk for assault because you've got a new class of students who are eager to fit in and be accepted. They go to parties and are handed something in a cup and before long, many have exceeded their limits or lost good judgment. Unfortunately, there are people who take advantage of that."

Johnson continued to blame herself, even after a friend told her that the encounter sounded like rape--after all, she was unable to give consent in her inebriated state. Then things got worse. She couldn't concentrate on her studies. She was in physical pain and worried that she'd contracted a urinary-tract infection. Finally, she went to Duke's emergency room.

Johnson told the intake nurse about the urinary-tract infection, then, almost as an afterthought, blurted out that she thought she might have been raped. Immediately, she says, the Duke police and Durham Crisis Response Center were contacted. Johnson agreed to undergo a rape kit collection, which revealed internal tears consistent with nonconsensual sexual intercourse.

At first, she didn't want to report the rape officially. But after reflecting further on what had happened, she decided to bring a case against her assailant through the university's internal disciplinary process.

During the hearing before the Undergraduate Judicial Board, the fraternity brother's testimony matched Johnson's, with two exceptions: He said that she had overstated the amount of alcohol consumed--and he said that the sex was consensual.

At the time, Duke's sexual-assault policy was only a single paragraph and left room for a wide variety of interpretations. Even though all five members of the judicial board agreed that something wrong had happened, given the wording of the sexual misconduct policy, the group was divided over whether there was enough evidence to support a finding that the young man had committed sexual assault. To Johnson's dismay, the board, which comprises students and faculty and staff members, ruled three to two that the young man could not be held responsible for sexual assault.

Based in part on the outcome of Johnson's case, a committee of administrators and students expanded the sexual misconduct policy to a seven-page document that includes a philosophy statement, clearer definitions about what does and does not constitute consent, revised hearing procedures, and examples of policy violations. The policy was implemented in the fall of 2003. (For the complete policy go to http://deanofstudents.studentaffairs.duke.edu/sxmscondt.html.)

"What we've tried to do is offer a clearer foundation for the board to stand on so their time spent is not spent on debating the policy," Leonard said at the time the policy was implemented. "I think it conveys a better message to the campus community."

The examples used to illustrate policy violations include some that might seem obvious--taking advantage of a peer who is clearly intoxicated, for example, or videotaping a sexual encounter without a partner's permission. But compounding the risk factors at Duke and on many other college campuses, experts say, is the current social climate for young men and women. Instead of dating, many college-age students engage in "hook-ups," isolated encounters that may or may not lead to any other interaction. For some, it's a fast, noncommittal way to achieve sexual satisfaction. Hook-ups aren't necessarily planned in advance, although many students, both men and women, speak of going out to a party or bar with the explicit notion of finding someone to hook up with. A lack of communication about expectations and limits can create dangerous sexual situations.

But more disturbing, Duke officials say, there appears to be a subset of college-age men, including undergraduates at Duke, who take advantage of the charged combination of socially curious first-year students who don't yet know their limits, the easy availability of alcohol, and the fact that the majority of sexual assaults are never reported. In the summer 2004 issue of Connection: The Journal of the New England Board of Higher Education, David Lisak, associate professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, writes about rape on college campuses. "Date rapists are widely assumed to be basically good guys who, because of a combination of too much alcohol and too little clear communication, end up coercing sex upon their partners. This image is widely promulgated but it is flatly contradicted by research." He cites social-science studies on such men who are often willing to talk about their sexual behavior because they do not consider themselves rapists. "Their violence and predatory behavior mirrors precisely that of the sexual predators who have been incarcerated and studied, except that by targeting non-strangers and by refraining from gratuitous violence, they have escaped prosecution," he notes.

Christopher Scoville, a Duke senior, has used his Chronicle column to underscore what he sees as unhealthy social situations on campus, including fraternity parties. "Male students take advantage of drunken female students, whether or not the female student truly desires the sexual encounter," he says. "I have a few female friends who have been passed out from drinking, and men have essentially raped them. I know firsthand that frat brothers know this is happening, but there's rarely condemnation, maybe indifference, or even a wink and a pat on the back."

That's the backdrop for what happened to Rita Nelson* on the last day of classes in the spring of 2003. It was a gorgeous day in April, and West Campus was filled with students talking, playing Frisbee--and drinking. Nelson was among a group hanging out at a fraternity where she knew many of the brothers and felt comfortable. "I knew not to go to a random fraternity party and drink the punch. I was with friends, I felt safe." In this environment, Nelson, who considers herself an occasional drinker with a low tolerance for alcohol, says she felt free to drink more than she otherwise would.