The school I got into knowingly recruit a sex offender.

[2021gradmpp]

I am an incoming student at a well-respected program in the US. Being an international student from a small country, I was excited about the opportunity to study at a top school; until I found out that a person in my cohort was a sex offender with multiple sexual harassment records. I was shocked to learn that the school recruited a sex offender to the program and am deeply concerned about being on campus this fall.

The person was a politician in my country and had numerous records of sexually harassing women in public, the victims include both high school and college girls. He was grouping women on public transit when they were asleep and got caught several times, all in different years; however, he got away with deferred prosecution (so no criminal records on file.) I’m aware of it since those were covered by major newspapers and broadcasted on national news networks in my country. But, even those happened ten years ago, I’m still disgusted by reading it.

I’ve reported it to the Title IX office at the institute and been told they’ve reviewed and addressed it with their policy. They decided that the person will be on campus this Fall. I was frustrated that the school knowingly recruited a sex offender, and truly concerned about being on campus this Fall. Unfortunately, it seems like the only option not to be on campus with such a person is to give up my admission.

This forum helped me a lot while I was applying last year, and I would like to post it here to get some thoughts and perspectives. Am I overreacting? What else could I do?

It’s a long post and thank you for reading it.

[PolicyApplier]

So you spoke to the Title IX office, which seems like the go-to spot. You could also request another meeting with the Title IX office and bring up scenarios like those happening at the LSU athletic department. You should also let them know that you are keeping a record of the correspondence and should he offend again you will promptly alert at the very least the student run paper on campus. The only other option I could think of would be to bring it up to either the dean of the college or the director of the program you are about to about to enroll in. Outside of that, you likely don't have any official recourse.

There is always unofficial option of making sure people in your cohort know, but that feels like it could get you into some serious interpersonal/libel problems. If that doesn't feel like the right route to go, you can just make sure that when you're out at social events you monitor their behavior and promptly let everyone know their behavior part of a pattern of aggressive behavior should they act that way again.

All of these actions involve a potential opportunity of retribution from either the university, should they have paid their way in, or from the individual in question. Keep records and make sure to store them in a spot that is outside of the university's reach (not on their servers, their email host, etc.).