TW: This article contains themes and accounts of sexual assault.

On Friday, Apr. 19, several hundred members of the Hamilton community came together in front of Buttrick Hall to express their anger, grief, and frustration in the wake of multiple reports of date rape drugs — specifically, ketamine — being present at off-campus social events and the administration’s response to these reports. Further, student organizers and attendees of the rally sought to call attention to broader issues of sexual assault on campus.

On Sunday, Apr. 14, Director of Campus Safety Frank Coots said that Campus Safety had “two men come in and report that friends of theirs believed that they had been poisoned by these date rape drugs.” The men “came in minutes from each other” and provided “similar information about different victims so that makes it extremely unusual.” That same day, Coots said he and his team contacted the New York State Police Department, specifically the investigator who deals with sexual assault on college campuses. Coots said they were also “in touch with the narcotics division of the state police because we’re dealing with illicit drugs, so we thought it was appropriate to have both of them involved.”

In terms of the specific date rape drug allegedly used in these incidents, Coots said, “We have received several second party reports in which the reporting person states their friend had a test completed of either their urine or blood and it came back positive for ketamine. We are going with information that is being reported to us.”

The following morning of Apr. 15, at 10:17 AM, Terry Martinez, Dean of Students, sent an email to the campus community informing them of the investigation.

Two days later, on Wednesday, Apr. 17, Survivors Making Activism and Radical Transformation (SMART) — a student-led campus group — emailed the community with information about their all-campus rally scheduled for that Friday. SMART urged all students, faculty, and staff to wear black and attend the rally.

Alma Bradley ’21, one of the student organizers of the rally said that “students like me, Gillian Driscoll ’21, Peter Case ’21, and Nikki Eisenberg ’21 reached out to SMART [Survivors Making Activism and Radical Transformation] to discuss the possibility of having a rally/demonstration/protest. We met with Kavya Crasta ’21 and Maya Figliuolo ’21 who were very interested and had expressed similar sentiments.”

Case, another organizer, said that for him, the rally was “a way to address concerns about systematic cover-ups of sexual assault cases on campus and the people and motives responsible for such cover-ups. The date rape drug incidents are horrifying, but in my opinion, the more horrifying thing is the ways in which the College handles sexual assault. We cannot expect a change in campus culture if perpetrators are not held accountable for their actions.”

Bradley added, “We need a broader all-campus culture of social and political activism. I think a lot of people are doing great advocacy work, but there is a lack of unity and not everyone gets involved in the amazing work being done.”

At the rally, some students shared their experiences as survivors of sexual assault and misconduct. Some said that the College administration is not doing, and has not done, enough to prevent these incidents from happening.

Hannah Fink ’19, President of the Womxn’s Community Center, said, “I think what’s frustrating is that we keep having these conversations with members of the administration across different issues, you know there are multiple cases of sexual assault and misconduct all the time on this campus.”

She added that the most recent incidents are “the only issue that’s getting attention, and I think where I’m getting frustrated, where maybe other people are getting frustrated, is we’re having these conversations and we feel like they’re not going anywhere.”

Cassidy Brown ’19 said, “Rape culture is permeated through violence against women being viewed as acceptable. And the way this case has been handled, specifically in the first email [from Dean Martinez], not only allows rape culture to keep existing at Hamilton but puts the responsibility of protection onto women. Hamilton is one of only three NESCACS to have a federal investigation open into how they handle Title IX cases, and they need to put all of their energy into stopping this Hamilton student.”

Some students also said they feel the College is not doing enough to support survivors and victims of sexual assault and druggings. Ali Zildjian ’19 said she has “seen less expulsions than I have suspensions, especially with repeat offenders.”

In a similar vein, Joel Adade ’22 expressed concern that the College is too lenient on assaulters. “There are people who can’t go to Commons because the person that sexually assaulted them is there,” he said.

Other students took issue specifically with the College’s Title IX policies. Emily Aviles ’19 said, “When we go to the Title IX office like I did, I immediately in my first meeting was told that is was more likely than not that nothing was going to happen to my abuser.”

Case added: “Our Title IX system is a little bit broken in my opinion. We have people who graduated a couple of years ago who filed seven claims, their assailant was suspended for only a semester, half a year. We have people on campus right now who have four claims filed against them — we’re waiting for the fifth for them to be kicked off campus. I just think that we’re not in any way meeting the bare minimum. I think we’re finding the loopholes that we can in order to sneak by without another federal investigation, and I think the fact that we’re under federal investigation goes to show that we’re not meeting the bare minimum.”

When reached for comment, Dean Martinez said, “I cannot speak to cases that occurred prior to my arrival in the fall of 2017, but I can say with certainty that we do not have any student currently on campus with 4 to 5 official investigations against them.”

Other students expressed grief, sadness, and anger that events like these most recent incidents seem to be ingrained in Hamilton’s campus culture and that not enough is done to address them by either the administration or the student body.

Aviles said, “There’s a disconnect between the experiences of students who are survivors, students who are friends of survivors, who are in touch with what’s going on here, and the administration. People drop out of this school because they’re not safe here.”

Nicole Eisenberg ’21 said merely attending the rally “doesn’t mean that the issue is over and doesn’t mean that you show your support endlessly. You need to keep showing up.”

Zildjian added, “If you see someone in a situation where they could be assaulted and do nothing, you are a bad person. Even if you think, ‘oh X wouldn’t do that’ or ‘it’s none of my business.’ If you stand by and don’t intervene, you are a bad person. No excuses. Protect the people around you and they will protect you. Believe survivors and keep up the fight.”

Another issue raised by attendees of the rally was the administration’s immediate response to the incidents. Dean Martinez’s initial email offered “steps to take when attending a party or visiting a bar,” which included a list of safety precautions at social events, including, “Don’t accept drinks from other people […] Open containers yourself […] Keep your drink with you at all times, even when you go to the bathroom […] Don’t share drinks.” Some students said this response could be construed as victim-blaming and criticized Martinez for failing to fully condemn the perpetrator or perpetrators of the date rape drug incidents.

In a second email sent on Wednesday, Apr. 17, Martinez provided updates on the status of the investigation and apologized for “[falling] short of stating unequivocally” the College’s intolerance of “the use of drugs to facilitate criminal acts.”

Martinez added in her email, “If the perpetrator of the alleged crime is a Hamilton student, the penalty likely would be expulsion. There is no place at Hamilton for a person who engages in this type of criminal activity.”

At the rally, Martinez said, “To the victims and survivors I am sorry for your pain and I understand it and I feel it. This is a very personal issue for me and I know that the letter that went out above my signature fell short of what it should have. So I want to apologize for that and take responsibility for that.”

College President David Wippman also spoke at the rally. “I can appreciate your frustrations, I feel exactly as you do,” he said. “I’m terribly frustrated that we are still seeing incidents of sexual assault on this campus. We want to create the best educational environment we can and that means an environment in which every student is safe. So, we have added resources to this, we are doing everything we can, we’re doing everything that I think good Title IX practice calls for. Does it mean there will never be an incident? No.”

Faculty members who attended the rally also spoke. Professor Kate Brown of the Physics Department said that upon first hearing of these incidents, “I was sad and not surprised.”

Professor Joyce Barry of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department said she was “sickened to discover that there could be members of our community who would drug someone without their knowledge. And I fear for the intended targets of this crime, who, most often, are young, college-age women. Although dosing someone with a date rape drug is, sadly, not a new occurrence, as a professor […] someone who spends most of her time in the company of 18–22-year-olds, who are especially vulnerable, it was disturbing.”

Despite the vocal support of some faculty members at the rally, students also expressed feeling frustrated and helpless with others, who they said were not supportive. At the rally, Kim Lifton ’20 said, “I’m genuinely disappointed at some of the responses from faculty. To have a faculty member say she’s on the Sexual Harassment Committee and then stand up in front of my class and say ‘I don’t understand why a protest is necessary. I don’t understand why walking out of class is necessary. What’s even happening?’ That was disrespectful — to say that academics come before my health.”

In the aftermath of the reported incidents and Friday’s rally, many questions remain. The location where the drugging reportedly took place is uncertain because, according to Coots, some students who reported an incident were at both the Village Tavern (VT,) a bar in the town of Clinton, and the Breakaway Lounge, an outdoor bar about ten minutes from campus.

However, Coots stated that he is confident that druggings occurred at Breakaway because in the initial reports made by students to Campus Safety, “Breakaway was always involved [and] the VT was only involved a couple of times.”

As to the number of reported cases and victims involved in these incidents, both Coots and Martinez preferred not to share a specific number. They said they have received multiple reports from students who believe that they are victims and from friends of students concerned that their friends might be victims. Still, both Martinez and Coots confirmed that there have been at least four reported cases between the weekends of April 5–7 and April 12–14 and that not all of the known victims are women. Regarding the identity of the perpetrator, Coots said that “the State Police force can do a lot of investigation, but it always comes down to someone giving us that name.”

Coots said he was made aware of two incidents that occurred on Feb. 23 at an on-campus, student organization-sponsored event when two female Hamilton students reported that they believed they had been drugged. Coots stated that he did not publicize these incidents at that time because he was unable to confirm that date rape drugs had been involved.

Regarding this February incident, one of the students who made a report spoke to

The Spectator

about her experience, saying,“[I] had four drinks before going to the party and then I was at the party with friends for fifteen minutes and then I don’t remember anything else until being in the ambulance, talking to the EMT briefly, and waking up in the hospital.

“Initially I was so angry at myself and still even it just sucks because this was a party that was in the Annex, a safe space on campus where I would think I should feel safe accepting a drink from a keg.

“I just wish I knew more, I wish I had been tested for anything, that the hospital staff had not just assumed that I was trashed.”

The other student who reported the incident said when she went to the hospital, she was tested for cocaine, opioids, and cannabis, among other drugs, but according to her lab results, she was not tested for standard date rape drugs. This was despite both victims saying they reported experiencing symptoms associated with date rape drugs, including profuse vomiting, inability to recall any events, physical instability and difficulty breathing when they went for testing.

In a separate incident, Emily Rivito ’21 chose to go to an off-campus provider for medical attention, but said the options she was given were “incompetent and negligent.”

“I was told to get a test would not change anything that happened that night and didn’t matter,” she added.

Dean Martinez said that since the demonstration on Friday, more victims have come forward and reported their stories, and more friends of victims have come forward to express concern on their friends’ behalf.

A survivor, who is not one of the four confirmed by Dean Martinez and Coots, said she chose not to report her experience to Campus Safety but shared with

The Spectator

that she is positive she was drugged and that she has friends who believe they were drugged as well. She says that at the Village Tavern on the night of Friday, Apr. 6, “My friend had bought me a drink and I was sipping on it while talking to her. It was my third drink of the night.

“I was fine and then all of a sudden this guy next to me started talking to me. I recognized him as someone I knew from last year. He was staring at my drink, staring at me, I knew that I was losing feeling in my limbs but I told him I wasn’t interested and it wasn’t okay. The next morning I woke up in just an oversized T-shirt, I wasn’t wearing anything except the shirt, had bruises on my neck and chest.”

The College has opened its own investigation into the recently reported cases and has partnered with the New York State Police to conduct a further criminal investigation. The lead investigator of these cases is Chad Chevrier of the New York State Police. When reached for comment, Investigator Chevrier said he could not answer any questions for this article or comment on the status of the investigation as it is open and ongoing.

Jonina Mignon ’21 provided additional reporting for this article.