Former Purchase Student Speaks Out Over Title IX Response to Sexual Violence
By Summer Tyler
Amid growing national media attention involving the Cornell 7 sexual assault case over the past month, some Purchase alumni have taken to social media to voice their own experiences with SUNY Purchase’s Title IX office and sexual violence that they said they experienced while being students at the college.
Former Purchase student Liv Reinertson made an Instagram post on her account bylivhandmade last month discussing her experience with Title IX at Purchase in 2016, her freshman year, after being the victim of what she said was an off-campus rape involving another Purchase student.
In the spring of 2016, Reinertson took a spring-break trip with her friends from Purchase, and said she was raped on this trip by one of her male friends at the time.
“On the spring break trip, he raped me probably like three days into this trip, and we had to continue this trip,” Reinertson said during a recent Zoom interview with Phoenix reporters. “The whole time, I had to stay on a trip with him after it happened and was really uncomfortable, but my friends were kind of trying to downplay it.”
After returning to Purchase for the spring semester, Reinertson said she did not initially report the off-campus rape until her roommate convinced her to go to the Title IX office for support. She expressed that at the time, she only wanted to have him moved out of the campus housing assignment that she had planned with her friends.
“She [Reinertson’s roommate] basically told me I had to go report this to Title IX cause she was like, ‘You’re not gonna live with this guy next year; you’re not gonna be uncomfortable,’” Reinertson said. “I was still justifying it at that point in a similar vein to how this Jane Doe at Cornell was, where she was still texting this guy afterward. This is so common for women who experience assault from people that they know is that they try and justify it in their head and come up with reasons why it wasn't a big deal. I was kind of running through that trauma response in the weeks following.”
Reinertson said, “I remember telling the people in the Title IX office, ‘I don’t want to make a big deal about this, you know, we were both drunk, but I feel really uncomfortable being in the same housing assignment as this guy because I don’t really remember what happened; I was passed out. I remember gaining consciousness like a few times and telling him no and then like fading in and out.’”
Reinertson explained how the Title IX officers told her that since the rape did not occur on campus, they couldn't do anything about it, and that if she didn’t want to live with the guy, she would have to pull out of her housing assignment for the following semester on her own.
“It was a really fucked-up experience trying to deal with not having to live with this guy,” said Reinertson. “It’s not like I was going to them saying, ‘I want him off campus immediately, I want him arrested. I want to file a police report.’ I was not coming at it at all like that. I just simply don’t want to live with this guy who assaulted me while I was passed out. It was very clear that they weren't going to do anything.”
Reinertson dropped out of Purchase after only being there for one year. “I didn’t tell anyone that I was gonna drop out,” she said. “I kind of just kept to myself and hung out with my roommate and stayed inside a lot till the end of the semester, and then I went back home, and I made up some excuses as to why I wanted to drop out. I didn't tell my family this happened until they learned from the Instagram post [of this past month], so I didn't talk about it at all since. I really kept quiet about it for a long time.”
Such a response to a trauma is not uncommon. According to Survivors Justice Center, “A sexual assault occurs every 98 seconds in America, and tens of thousands of reported cases never get prosecuted due to the burden of proof required to achieve a conviction. The odds stacked against survivors by the justice system are only one example of why they may not come forward. But the fear of coming forward in itself does not discredit a survivor’s testimony. Ultimately, it is a personal, and very difficult, choice grounded in countless individualized factors. Those who repeat the tired refrain of, ‘If it was as serious as [the survivor] claims, they would have told someone,’ have no awareness of the emotional toll it takes on survivors to open up about what was likely the most horrific experience of his or her life.”
Reinertson talked about her feelings seeing other women sharing their stories on social media as the Cornell story has gained more traction.
“A lot of the dominant narrative about these campus rapes that happen were alluding to Greek Culture being the cause of it. Saying like, ‘Greek life and rape are like two peas in a pod.’”
She continued, “I thought it was important to bring some awareness to the fact that this happens at art schools, this happens at liberal arts schools, this happens everywhere,” she said. “It’s not just a Greek-life problem; you can get raped by someone who’s in an art program as well.”
Reinertson was recently interviewed by FOX 5 News regarding her experience with Purchase’s Title IX office. When FOX reached out to Purchase officials, the college released this statement: “SUNY Purchase has a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault, and everyone deserves to feel safe on campus. We affirm our dedication to ensuring that all SUNY Purchase students are able to live and learn in a safe environment.”
When asked how she thought Title IX could better support students at colleges and universities, Reinertson said, “I think that if somebody comes with any inkling of evidence that they have been assaulted on campus or off campus, it should be taken extremely seriously. In that moment, I was an 18-year-old, and I was really scared and I didn’t know what had happened to me really. It wasn't until many, many, many years later that I could even actually say that I was raped. I always just thought it was like something that happened because I was drunk and because my friend was a dick. I think not only do they obviously need to take these accounts seriously, but if someone comes in there and isn't even saying that they were raped and is just saying, ‘I really feel uncomfortable living with this guy because he did something that made me uncomfortable,’ then that needs to delve into a much further investigation.”
According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), “Many survivors need time before they can say what happened, understand what happened, or decide whether they want to seek help through the legal system.”
That was Reinertson’s experience. “An 18-year-old girl’s mind is not necessarily drawing the most accurate conclusion after a traumatic event like that,” Reinertson said. “I think that if there were counselors there who were able to guide me through the process of realizing what had happened to me, that would've been really beneficial, as well as actual action taken.”
Reinertson’s Instagram post has gained over 50,000 likes and invited other former Purchase students to share their experiences with Title IX and what they said were instances of sexual violence on Purchase campus in the comment section.
One former Purchase student who commented on Reinertson’s post was Melissa Riling, who attended Purchase from 2007 to 2009.
Riling told The Phoenix that she did not report what she claims happened to her at Purchase to Title IX, but she expressed the difficulties she feels come with reporting an incident at a young age.
“It’s just so complicated because it’s like, yes, I wish I had said something then, but it seems like torture to go through,” Riling said. “Still today, I’m like, ‘Should I just file a police report now?’ But it’s like, I can’t imagine having to go through [that]. It’s so much work for the survivor to go through. So, if you feel strong enough to do that, yes, do it. But if you don’t, then only surround yourself with people who take you seriously and support you and believe you.”
Leo Osborn, a 2024 Purchase graduate and acting major, described the struggles they saw friends face when trying to report issues to the Title IX Office.
“My friend went to them initially not too long after their own incident occurred with this guy, and was told they needed at least five other accusations before they would even investigate, in case my friend was ‘making it up,’” Osborn said. “It made me not even want to try reporting my own assault, because I felt like what happened to my friend was objectively more on-paper textbook assault than what happened to me.”
Osborn continued, “To me, it really felt like they just didn’t want to do their jobs. Like if they investigated every assault accusation, they’d be doing it forever, which clearly speaks to a concerning culture at Purchase that allows these events to keep happening.”
When asked for a comment, Dr. Maurice Nelson, Purchase's chief diversity officer and Title IX coordinator, provided this statement to The Phoenix:
“All allegations of sexual assault, harassment, and violence are taken seriously, and we have policies and procedures in place to ensure individuals who report or experience sexual or interpersonal violence have access to the resources and support they may need. Students are strongly encouraged to report claims to the ODC, our university police, or local law enforcement.”
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