Law Students May Aid Date Rape Victims

If a few sociology concentrators and a teaching fellow succeed, any student who brings charges of date rape to the Administrative Board will soon have a qualified law student to advise them them through the proceedings.

Ayelet Waldman, a third-year law student who last year was a teaching fellow for Sociology 116, "Women and the Law," said she and a group of students are forming a special liason group that will assign volunteer law students to advise students who say they are victims of date rape. Waldman said students developed the idea last spring, during a class discussion of "ideas to help the many women on campus who were victims of date rape."

Waldman said that the law students who volunteer will familiarize themselves with Ad Board proceedings. She said they will also be required to have taken classes in gender discrimination and criminal law.

An Aid to Understanding

"They will be able to help the woman understand what's going on and also clarify her legal rights," said Waldman.

At an organizational meeting last night, students discussed ways to publicize the group's availability. "We want [victims of date rape] to know they can contact us and we'll get them in touch with a law student," said Kirsten P. Borstead '93.