W
hen Page Garbee returned to her hotel after one of the worst nights of her life, she went into the bathroom and collapsed to the floor. From grief, from being overwhelmed, from pure exhaustion.
She then mustered the strength to shower before retreating to her bed, where she sobbed as she drifted off to sleep.
“I was a huge mess,” said Garbee, then a Syracuse University student studying in Poland with SU Abroad’s Central Europe program.
Previously that night, Oct. 18, 2014, a male SU student punched Garbee in the face at a bar in the city of Krakow, inflicting her with a black eye. The punch was thrown after she repeatedly denied the student’s sexual advances throughout the night as they moved from bar to bar, she said.
Now, as she fell asleep, the night was over, but it was just the start of months of distress for Garbee.
Though SU would later find the student guilty of the assault, what followed was a series of what some described as questionable decisions made by the university — decisions that would cause Garbee more suffering while doing little to punish the student, she said.
In some cases, the decisions may have violated SU’s own policies.
I just feel like, if you’re convicted of assaulting another student, the punishment should be severe.Page Garbee
Garbee went public about the episode over the summer, writing a blog post about the incident and later agreeing to an interview with The Daily Orange.
Further reporting also revealed the male student was, on multiple occasions, celebrated by the university in the years after the incident. He remained in the Renée Crown University Honors Program and was prominently featured on the SU Abroad website — something that changed after a Daily Orange inquiry.
The Daily Orange generally does not name students accused of assault who have not been criminally charged. The student, an undergraduate at the time of the assault, was later admitted to SU’s School of Information Studies master’s program, where he is currently pursuing a degree.
The case and its aftermath provide a glimpse into how SU handles incidents of violence against women. But ultimately, that’s all it is: a glimpse. Examining it on a broader scale would require more transparency from SU than its current policies allow.
Garbee stressed that she doesn’t resent SU and said the university often handled the situation professionally. But she added that, at other times, SU’s decision-making “really bothered me.”
“I just feel like, if you’re convicted of assaulting another student, the punishment should be severe,” she said.
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W
ithin days of the assault, Garbee filed an incident report with SU. She said she chose not to report the crime to Polish authorities because of the language barrier and the country’s generally misogynistic culture.
One day not long after Garbee filed the report, the director of the program, Hana Cervinkova, pulled Garbee into her office to second-guess her filing the report, the latter said.
“Why don’t you just talk to him? Doesn’t everyone make mistakes? Think about whether you really need to file charges,” Garbee remembers being told by Cervinkova, paraphrasing the conversation.
Cervinkova could not be reached for comment on this story.
Another day in class not long after the assault, one of the other students in the program singled Garbee out in front of the group, she said, telling her that she only cared about herself.
As incidents like those repeated themselves, Garbee quickly realized she wanted to return to the United States. Of the 10 other students in the program, just one — the only to witness the punch — believed she had been assaulted.
“It felt insurmountable to be surrounded by that much negativity and disbelief,” Garbee said. “So as soon as I kind of figured that out, I wanted out.”
Garbee quickly found out, though, that leaving wouldn’t be a realistic option.
SU officials declined to comment on any aspects of the incident because they were unauthorized to discuss matters related to specific students. But Garbee said she was told by SU that if she were to return home, she would lose credits for the courses she was taking and thus the tens of thousands of dollars she was paying toward tuition.
It felt insurmountable to be surrounded by that much negativity and disbelief. So as soon as I kind of figured that out, I wanted out.Page Garbee
With two weeks left in the semester, Garbee said SU reversed course and informed her she could leave without being penalized, but by that point it was too late, she said.
“It was frustrating that there was not an exception made earlier,” she said.
Forced to stay in Poland, day-to-day life was a struggle for Garbee. She felt secluded and ostracized, as the other students in the program continued to not believe her. She suffered frequent panic attacks. And she said she was diagnosed with both post-traumatic stress disorder and acute anxiety disorder.
Maybe most difficult, though, was living in the same apartment as the rest of the students in the program, including the student who was found to have assaulted her. Garbee filed a no-contact order, which SU granted, prohibiting the student from having any contact with her. That forced the student to move away from the apartment, but not before SU first asked Garbee to move and she refused, she said.
The student was ultimately found responsible for the assault through a University Conduct Board hearing. The board reached the decision in mid-November, according to documents Garbee shared with The Daily Orange.
Kiran Ramsey | Digital Design Editor
The student was permitted to stay in the program for the remainder of the semester, even though the SU Abroad website states that students studying abroad “must remain a student in good standing (academic, financial, and judicial) to participate in our programs.”
SU Abroad declined to comment on the specific incident, but marketing and communications manager Jenn Horvath said in an email that SU Abroad is notified when a student abroad violates the Code of Student Conduct.
She added that SU Abroad has the ability to suspend or terminate a student’s participation in the SU Abroad program when that happens.
“Or if SU Abroad believes that the student’s participation poses a danger to the student or others or threatens to impede orderly conduct of the SU Abroad programs,” Horvath said.
“They definitely had grounds for removing him and sending him home early and they chose not to,” Garbee added. “And I think that was detrimental, particularly in such a small program.”
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W
hen Garbee returned to SU for the spring 2015 semester — her last before she graduated — she still couldn’t escape the assault and its impact.
The panic attacks continued, and they didn’t stop until March of that semester. She also lost friends who didn’t believe her, including one who was a mutual friend of Garbee and the student who assaulted her.
Meanwhile, the student avoided severe repercussions, at least in the form of sanctions. He received disciplinary probation and community service, according to documents Garbee shared with The Daily Orange.
Those penalties are the minimum penalties for crimes of violence, according to the SU Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities’ website, which stipulates that such crimes can also be grounds for a suspension or indefinite suspension.
In an effort to learn whether the sanctions the student received were typical, The Daily Orange requested information on sanctions for all cases of violence against women at SU dating back to April 2014 — when SU’s current administration took over — in which the perpetrators have been found responsible. OSRR director Pamela Peter said SU is not legally authorized to share that data, citing the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
SU’s Student Conduct System Handbook also claims the university holds information on sanctions confidential in such cases due to “applicable law,” which Peter said is a reference to FERPA.
That, however, is an incorrect application of FERPA, an expert said. The law was amended in the 1990s to permit universities to share sanctions for crimes of violence and sexual assault — when the perpetrator has been found guilty — with third parties, including the media. Specifically, the amendment allows universities to share the name of the perpetrator, the offense and the penalties.
Richard Peltz-Steele, a University of Massachusetts School of Law professor specializing in the freedom of information, confirmed that FERPA is not an excuse for withholding that information.
“FERPA is so grossly overused by universities,” he said. “It’s frustrating.”
An email to Peter explaining the FERPA amendment permitting universities to disclose such information went unanswered.
Moriah Ratner | Staff Photographer
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F
ollowing the assault, the male student remained in and graduated as a member of SU’s Renée Crown Honors Program.
It was one of the ways SU recognized him in an official capacity even after he was found responsible for striking Garbee in the face.
The Honors Program never had the chance to consider removing the student’s honors status, because it was never made aware of the assault or him being found responsible. Kate Hanson, the deputy director of the Honors Program, said the program does not receive notification from the OSRR when one of its students is found guilty of a student conduct violation, regardless of the violation.
“I felt like he should have been stripped of things like his Honors status,” Garbee said. “You defied the definition of honor.”
In addition to the student remaining in the Honors Program, he was also listed, until a few weeks ago, on the SU Abroad website as a “global ambassador” for the Central Europe program.
Horvath, the marketing and communications manager for SU Abroad, said global ambassadors are there for interested students to ask questions about studying abroad.
“We encourage prospective SU Abroad students to contact recent alumni to get a feel for what student life is like at our centers and on our programs,” Horvath said.
Within days of The Daily Orange’s inquiry, the student was removed as a global ambassador.
But for up to 20 months after the assault, SU officials allowed the student’s profile to remain on the site, along with his advice for prospective students.
“I have no regrets,” he wrote. “… The thing about going abroad is that you just need to live. You need to expand your mind and find out who you are. A semester abroad is not the time to lay idle or to stay within your comfort zone. Every day you should challenge yourself as a person and try something new.”
Moriah Ratner | Staff Photographer
Banner photo by Moriah Ratner | Staff Photographer
Published on September 7, 2016 at 11:47 pm
Contact Michael: mdburk01@syr.edu
This whole matter confuses me. The confusion comes from the attention it is getting. Consider several facts: 1) in America there is declared equality of gender; 2) currently the government is suggesting that gender is not only of concern but that, at least in using the “facilities” it differences don’t exist; 3) those of the female persuasion are now encouraged to, and do, apply for combat roles where violence will happen. Add to that consideration of looking at what was discribed in the article with three alternate scenarios: A) She struck the other student, and B) both individuals were men, and C) both individuals were women. With men, only if there were damage to others’ property or blood was flowing would the police have been called, plus the odds were that they would have settled the argument in the next morning’s light. With women I might have expected that they would never become friends, but they would have avoided one another…and their respective friends would have taken sides to the detriment of one of them…that is life. And if the women had struck the man, given him a black eye, he would have probably never have spoken to him again, ignored the whole thing and just moved on. There would have been probably no interest on the part of the University to get involved in a matter of which they had absolutely no first hand information that would have insured that any University action was appropriate. Women now fight professionally, they compete with men in every occupation, they universally claim, both by actions and verbally, that they are the equal of men in every way. Most men I know if faced with her situation would not have wanted to remain in the same housing if most of those there took the side of the person who struck here…so why did she insist on staying where the attitude around her (she claims) caused her mental trauma? That is illogical. That this should be subject of such public attention and examination is a mystery. While I think the University should not have been involved in any way, leaving the matter to the local authorities (her explanation of why she did not contact the police and file charges just doesn’t ring true to me), since they did get involved, I think the did the best that they could. There is an overwhelming sense that, emotionally, this person wants to do all they can to ruin the other person’s life and has an unhealthy expectation of what the world will do to create a bubble of safety around her that will fulfill all her wants and desires. The world won’t do that, doesn’t want to do that, and couldn’t even if it wanted to. And most people would recognize that going out in a strange country to “bar hop” and then continuing to do that after multiple encounters with a person you find repulsive is a bad decision; perhaps going home after the second encounter might, at least in retrospect, been the better choice? In life, choices have consequences. They are neither good nor bad, just consequences. It is people who insist on labeling them as either good, bad, enjoyable or painful…and the labeling is a wast of time. “Stuff” happens and too much time is wasted trying to make someone else responsible.
This is exactly wht we should just legalize rape. He wouldn’t have punched her in he could have just had his way with her. It’s disgusting.
Roommates studying in Poland are on an all day pub-crawl and there is a physical altercation in a crowded bar after everyone is hammered. Boy that never happens.
I would say never hit a women, but I believe that is now a micro aggression or some violation of gender neutrality rules. The fact that the other women in the apartment basically didn’t believe her is odd. The fact that everyone including the University, roommates and program coordinator felt the guy was basically a good kid should raise red flags about her story. What concerns me is an over the top reaction by Page and the desire to ruin someone’s life over an apparent drunken mistake. If this guy had any history of issues, I’m sure the University would have acted differently. Life lesson people, if you are ever around someone who claims victimhood at the drop of a hat, run. Eventually you will be in the crosshairs at some point.
Good post. Would be interesting to see if Page had a history of making issues out of nothing. That may have been a consideration, along with the his good standing, during the University review.
Assault is never okay, and you are reinforcing the culture that not only allows victim blaming, but also allows perpetrators to be let off without consequence or with greatly reduced consequence (i.e. Brock Turner, Standford rapist). Do your research and you will find that women are assaulted at much higher rates than men, especially sexual assault or incidents relating to sexual advances. It is brave women like Page that continue to break the stigma that women should remain quiet, and we should all applude her for doing so. Acknowledging that this problem exists is the first step towards working to stop these assaults from happening in the first place and also creating a culture that pursues the proper consequences for perpetrators of violence instead of trying to blame the victim. This is why so many cases of assault (sexual or otherwise) go unreported. People like you make them scared to have a voice. Violence is not normal, and it should never be ignored, or justified, regardless of who the perpetrator is.
You should be ashamed for your comment, excusing the behavior of a violent individual that doesn’t understand how to take ‘no’ for an answer.
Drunk bar altercation between two roommates compared to a legal verdict of rape. Yeah obviously the same thing. Victim blaming is a bully phrase to silence people who God forbid question a series of events that don’t quite add up. You have no idea concerning the specifics of the incident or the individual motives involved. You are a lynch mob similar to the Duke lacrosse case. Apparently the women who lived with Page in Poland believed she was also over doing it. Should they be ashamed of themselves too? The honors student is a “perp” now because he allegedly gave Page a life altering black eye? Let’s hope no one is around you when you trip in a bar. I imagine you’ll be filing a police report for attempted murder.
Yes, relating a case of violence to another case of violence is actually very applicable as they are on the same spectrum. Not sure how you’re missing that.
Victim blaming is a bully phrase? Boy, you are quite the trip.. Let me make this clear for you: Regardless of alcohol intoxication, regardless of clothing choices, regardless of even if she was flirting with him earlier, not a single reason justifies this man taking out his frustration with violence. Nor are there any excuses for victim blaming in any assault/domestic violence/sexual assault case. Violent behavior must be addressed, and the burden should always be on the perpetrator of the violence.
It does not make the slightest difference who he is or what his accomplishments are. If he commits acts of violence, he should be held accountable. You should be ashamed to be so quick to defend such violence. I strongly encourage you to research gender-based violence around the world and educate yourself on the extent of this problem. This one SU case is a symptom of a larger societal problem that crosses all cultures, in which gender stereotypes encourage dominating violent behavior by men, and submission and silence by women, even here in the US. As men, we should be allies to these strong women and use our voices to advocate for change and call out language and behavior that reinforces this behavior in the first place. You clearly have the time to search the internet, so go ahead and put it to good use. ?
No, a one-sided news article where authorities have chosen not to take action against the alleged perp is not comparable to a guilty rape verdict. What a self-righteous arrogant jerk. I feel sorry for the women that deal with real violence and abuse every day as you shamelessly equate the two. There is no dispute that violence against women is a serious issue. One that needs a much more level headed approach to the issue than the childlike tantrum you’re throwing. You have some nerve lecturing me on a case you know nothing about and then equating this isolated incident to larger societal problem. The Duke, the UVA, Columbia, and Lena DumAss hoaxes make it tougher on sexual abuse victims. You understand how these cases, soaked up by vigilantes like you, are the real reason women are branded liars when they come forward with actual allocations. Not sure how you’re missing that. Those women should be in jail for false accusations.
Why don’t you put down your pitchfork for a minute social justice warrior. Could it be the University who knows the whole story and the roommates that know both individuals may have a better grasp of the situation than you. Right, how could that be when you seem to have convicted the perp based on your lack of any knowledge what so ever. I like the burden of proof is on the accused comment. Wow you must be a big fan of the Salem witch trials as true justice. Just curious, when you hear a rumor about someone in the neighborhood, do you burn down his house right away or protest in front first?
“Life lesson people, if you are ever around someone who claims victimhood at the drop of a hat, run. Eventually you will be in the crosshairs at some point.”
Real talk doe…
” It is brave women like Page that continue to break the stigma that women should remain quiet, and we should all applude her for doing so.”
What a beta-male faggot response. Stigma? Yes, the stigma…its real…in your head.
“You should be ashamed…”
Anyone whose argument contains a phrase like this one…be weary people.
“As men, we should be allies to these strong women and use our voices to advocate for change and call out language and behavior that reinforces this behavior in the first place. ”
Translation “Would you please have sex with my girlfriend while I prep the bull? I love the cuckold life, aint it splendid?.”