By Ryan Broderick, News Editor
Hofstra University last fall was in a national spotlight for hosting the final presidential debate. This fall we’re on a national spotlight, but instead for the story of a grizzly and brutal gang rape that was then on Wednesday night thrown out as false. The question that hangs over the campus now though is what do we do? How does a campus as a community digest a lie this damaging?
Sunday morning our office was given viral footage taken from cell phones and a pocketed video camera. Rumors started circulating almost immediately. Why was there a fire alarm? Who was assaulted? How were they assaulted?
Sunday there was nothing but rumor and hearsay and our reporters had no other option but to canvas the campus and try to find out something. There were leads about a stabbing and multiple rapes and some kind of fraternity cover-up, we were constantly taking quotes that lead us in different directions that added up to nothing.
Of course in the end the victim proved all of it was in vain, but at the time we didn’t know and no one else did either.
Looking at the piles of notes and hours of video and audio and quotes it’s pretty amazing that all of it was thrown out at the last minute because she recanted. It’s scary to think about what if her statement had come out Thursday morning. We would have had a front page that wouldn’t have meant anything.
But her last minute decision to tell the truth was also a relief. As we got closer and closer to deadline tensions were high because her story didn’t make sense. Nothing about the story made any sense. Public Safety wouldn’t and couldn’t give us a straight answer and the University Relations department was besieged with pressure from the media so we were their least concern.
The quotes we had had major gaps like how did the five men get passed the one student, one guest rule or if they had their ID’s from swiping in did they have hers? How did she get from Hofstra USA to Estabrook? How was she tied up? Why did nobody hear her alleged screams for help? We had such an incredible wealth of material and yet too many loose ends to print.
But as we sat in the office attempting to come to an ethical and legal way of essentially saying that the Nassau County Police and Hofstra’s story made absolutely zero sense the last piece of the puzzle broke. Suddenly it all made sense, consensual sex and possible back-peddling to hide it. Of course even now there are rumors and speculation surging again.
Sunday afternoon and Monday morning girls were coming out of the woodwork and claiming they felt “uneasy” Saturday night, only after hearing there was an assault. Wednesday night it already started again, quotes in the student center to the tune of “of course, I knew that girl was a liar” and things like “typical Hofstra girl bulls–t”.
That’s how it always works though and that’s what makes our job so hard. And while it looks so clear now in hindsight at the time we were completely frozen out by Hofstra’s decision to wait, and again it’s only clear now that they had no choice. As the victim’s statement was released all the tension and anger with Hofstra’s press policy melted away because honestly, with a story that poorly constructed anything more than what they did say would have been speculation.
The last bits to be thrown in on Wednesday night mainly center on the idea of next time. It’s a disgusting thing to think about, one, the idea a gang rape could happen again, and two, that a girl could lie about a gang rape again. Imagine having to create a policy about what to do with “fake rape.”
My God, what type of person not only belittles the seriousness of rape and consciously destroys the reputations of a school and four young men at the same time.
But it looks like this whole matter is over and The Chronicle’s newsroom can decompress from the warroom type set-up we’ve been living out of since Sunday. But like everything else, we have to think about next time. It’s horrible and devastating, but it’s something we have to take into account and it’s something I’m sure The University is taking into account too. By the way, this was my first week as news editor…