Quinnipiac University students are shocked and disgusted in light of the recent arrests of two of its male basketball players on charges of sexual assault and unlawful restraint. The Nov. 17 arrests of Trevon Charles, 18, and James Feldeine, 18, stemmed from an alleged incident on Oct. 19 in Dana Hall involving urination on a female student.
“I wouldn’t expect that to happen here,” said sophomore biology major Laurey Williamson.
While some students are in a state of disbelief and shock over the alleged incident, others are worried about the future image of the university. Students such as Aaron Mitchko, a sophomore physical therapy major, are concerned that the incident might give prospective students the wrong perception of the university.
“It’s definitely going to have a negative impact for people coming in. They might take this rare incident and assume this always happens. I don’t think that’s fair,” Mitchko said.
A number of students on campus were not aware of the incident until recently, or had no concrete knowledge about the “real story.” With students not knowing of any form of official statement made by the university, many students who live on and off campus are not aware of what happened, according to senior psychology major Lauren Park.
“Our school isn’t one to talk about something like this,” Park said. She believes that the university should address the matter.
“If QU doesn’t take action, it could be a problem. . They need to do prevention work, and teach proper behavior,” she said.
Corey Shuster, a freshman interactive digital design major, was surprised to hear of the alleged assault through his parents. Unlike Park, who would like to see the university issue a reaction to the alleged incident, Shuster shares the opinion of Mitchko about the negative representation, but believes the university should keep quiet.
“I think they (the university) should keep it under wraps to attract incoming students,” Shuster said.
According to the Office of Postsecondary Education, a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Education, Quinnipiac security reported four cases of on-campus sexual assault between 2003 and 2005. This number is low in comparison to those of other northeastern colleges during the same time period. Yale University reported 20 cases; the University of Maine, 21; Rutgers University-New Brunswick, 44; and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 63. Although each of these institutions enrolls more students than Quinnipiac, each of these institutions had a higher ratio of sexual assaults than did Quinnipiac.
Quinnipiac has announced it has suspended one of the students from the basketball team. Although Charles has not returned to the team, Feldeine has been in uniform and has played limited minutes. The university has not disclosed information about any other forms of punishment.
If the allegations are true, some students feel the players should be expelled from the university, either temporarily or permanently.
“They should be kicked off the team and expelled for one semester,” said Kim Story, a junior psychology major.
Sophomore communications major Brian Salisbury does not think the punishment should be as harsh. He suggested a more appropriate punishment would have been “suspension from the team, and a week or two from classes.”
As for the impact the alleged incident will have on the university, students had mixed opinions. Some believe that the news will go away fairly quickly, while others believe it could damage the university’s reputation.
According to police reports, Charles and Feldeine initially joked with an unidentified female student that they were going to urinate on her. The alleged victim claims that the two basketball players then forced her into a men’s bathroom as she was leaving a friend’s room. A struggle ensued in the bathroom, and one of the players allegedly urinated on the back of the female student’s leg.
