BU senior sues university following alleged sexual assault

Boston University is one of 55 universities currently under Title IX investigation

A female BU senior is suing the university under a state civil rights law that claims to protect students against sexual assault on college campuses. The student claims that the university’s failure to provide safe housing allowed for her to be raped in her dorm room last school year.

A BU Emergency Alert was sent out to the university on Sunday afternoon October 18, 2015 after a female student reported being sexually assaulted by an unknown male in her Stuvi dorm room early that morning. The suspect, described as a  “college age white male, 5’8’’- 5’10,’’ medium build, brown hair, wearing a dark colored button-down long sleeve shirt and down vest” was later identified as former MIT basketball player Samson Donick, 20, of Tiburon, Calif.

Donick was signed into the Student Village on 33 Harry Aggains Way by friends when he allegedly walked into the women’s room, who he did not know, and raped her. Donick has plead not guilty to the rape charges allegedly asking the female student, “Baby, do you want some more?”

The alleged rape that occurred on the morning of October 18, 2015 was not the only case of the university’s failure to provide safe housing that night. Lily, a senior who lives in StuVi II said two unknown men barged into her room and later her friends room while they were in bed early in the morning asking if they were “Sarah.” When the men did not find Sarah they left, but cases of unwelcome people barging into student housing happen quite often.

The current lawsuit from the October 2015 incident is based on the Massachusetts version of the federal Title IX law that “prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded program.” BU has been under Federal investigation since December 2013 for failing to comply with Title IX.

BU has dealt with several major sexual assault cases dealing with high profile people on campus such as varsity hockey players Corey Trivino and Max Nicastro and CFA Professor Eric Ruske. Although only 2-8% of rapes are found to be false but the procedures to deal with reporting and punishing the suspect often fail leading to insufficient or no punishment.

BU appointed Kim Randall, Executive Director of Equal Opportunity, in January 2015 as the University Title IX Coordinator to guarantee that the university is abiding by Title IX regulations.

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