Mairead Crotty, news writer during The Cavalier Daily’s 2014-15 term and Class of 2017 alumna, remembers reading the “horrifying” article in Clark library. The news made its way across Grounds, spreading between glowing screens as students passed the link to Facebook friends.
Another former Cavalier Daily staffer’s first reaction was visceral: “Holy s—, that’s really intense.”
Ten years ago, “Rolling Stone” published its shock-inducing and now-retracted article, “A Rape on Campus” by Sabrina Erdely. The report featured a University student named Jackie who claimed she was violently gang-raped at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party during her first year. But what happens when a story so consequential is proven untrue?
The graphic narrative ignited protests both on Grounds and at a national level. It also stoked fears of toxic University culture, as Jackie alleged that her friends discouraged her from reporting the assault. Jackie also shared her experience navigating the sexual misconduct reporting process, overseen at the time by Assoc. Dean of Students Nicole Eramo, whose competence Erdely questioned in her article. In response, protestors demanded better treatment for sexual assault survivors along with structural change in the University’s case reporting process.
After receiving national attention and scrutiny, further investigations and fact checking caused Jackie’s testimony to unravel. “Rolling Stone” partially retracted the article Dec. 5, 2014, then issued a full retraction April 5, 2015, citing a loss of faith in its main source. The Columbia Journalism Review condemned the reporting as some of the year’s worst journalism.
The debunking created a complex situation for advocates against gender-based violence. While Jackie’s story could not be substantiated, sexual assault was — and still is — an issue at the University and college campuses across the nation. In an era before the “Me Too” movement took off in 2017, many activists were still looking to bring these issues into mainstream conversations.
Thrown into the center of this journalistic implosion and activism on Grounds were student editors, writers and other staffers at The Cavalier Daily. A decade later, several shared what it was like reporting on such a high-profile controversy as both developing journalists and students themselves.
As students knew, the University and other colleges were entering uncomfortable conversations surrounding Greek life, privilege and sexual assault even before November 2014. Charlottesville was already on edge after the kidnapping and murder of student Hannah Graham just two months earlier. One former Cavalier Daily staffer said these events created an especially volatile atmosphere, a “powder keg” setting the stage for the article. It was a story designed for a particular moment in time, they said. And it exploded.
Immediate coverage
When Cavalier Daily members gathered to discuss the article’s claims and plan next steps for coverage, Chloe Heskett, news senior associate for the 2014-15 term and Class of 2016 alumna, remembered being drawn to the office “like a magnet.”
“You have your own personal reaction of shock and upset, and at the same time, you kind of put your news or your editor hat on, and are like, ‘Okay, how do we interpret and parse this information for our community? How do we cover this responsibly?’’’ Heskett said.
In the immediate aftermath of the “Rolling Stone” story, Cavalier Daily staffers said the paper focused on documenting the University’s response. Many writers said they felt a responsibility to provide insightful coverage on their community, especially in a time when national media — dropping in for quotes from activists and administration — drove much of the narrative.
The paper’s student journalists shed light on press conferences, student activism and administration's response. Opinion columnists weighed in on solutions to sexual violence and changes in fraternity regulations. One news reporter even interviewed Jackie’s friends, who were falsely quoted in “Rolling Stone” but never directly contacted by Erdely.
All five former Cavalier Daily staffers interviewed said that while certain elements of Jackie’s story felt extreme and some details appeared misinformed, most students trusted the initial reporting. “Rolling Stone” was a reputable publication, after all. And anecdotes of hazing and other unsavory elements of Greek life on Grounds added credibility to Jackie’s claims, several alumni said.
Warranted or not, Erdely’s use of sensationalism sent shockwaves across Grounds. Anna Higgins, news writer for The Cavalier Daily’s 2014-15 term and Class of 2018 alumna, said every time she opened Yik Yak — an anonymous location-based conversation app — she saw people talking about the “Rolling Stone” article and the graphic violence it alleged.
“As an 18-year-old girl coming to college for the first time, it definitely made me and my friends feel a little unsafe and a little uneasy,” Higgins said.
Those fears were only heightened by news cameras interrupting daily walks to class as reporters flocked to Charlottesville in search of a scoop, according to Dani Bernstein, opinion senior associate for the 2014-15 term and Class of 2017 alumna. While many in Charlottesville were sorting through trauma, one Cavalier Daily staffer who requested to remain anonymous said professional journalists began knocking on doors and cold calling students.
Groups on Grounds responded swiftly to the story. The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity voluntarily suspended chapter activity Nov. 20, 2014. University President Teresa Sullivan then requested a Charlottesville Police Department investigation into allegations and temporarily suspended all fraternities Nov. 22.
Students and Contracted Independent Organizations held numerous demonstrations, including a “Slut Walk” — a type of march meant to protest victim-blaming and raise awareness about sexual violence. Faculty hosted a “Take back the party” protest where they marched in robed academic regalia in solidarity alongside hundreds of students.
Much of this activism focused on perceived failure from administration, both in its handling of Jackie’s case and other incidents. Heskett described an “incredibly tense” atmosphere.
“There was so much outrage, so much anger — and rightfully so, it's an issue to be angry about,” Heskett said. “As became clear later, a lot of that anger, rightful as it was, was misdirected. And I think there were hints of that pretty early on, but nonetheless … that anger was there and it needed to find [a] channel. And the wildly misreported story unfortunately gave it a very clear channel.”
That anger often made covering the “Rolling Stone” story an emotionally difficult task for student journalists, according to several alumni.
Thanks to the paper’s recent digital-forward efforts, it was easy to share articles online. This meant that certain staff members involved in coverage faced intense scrutiny and, sometimes, personal attacks from readers due to the controversial topic.
“It was hard, and I think not just because [Cavalier Daily] staff were getting negative attention online, but also because they were part of the student body in this really emotionally charged environment at the same time that they were reporting on it,” the anonymous former staffer said.
While agreeing that taking on this task as a student journalist was an “enormously stressful” pressure, Heskett said it allowed student voices into the broader discourse.
“For those following the story outside of our community, whether in the greater Charlottesville area or much further beyond … we could offer that perspective, that embedded lens, much more so than any national reporter coming into our community could,” Heskett said.
In addition to objective reporting, the paper’s opinion section offered a space for students to weigh in on the controversy.
Bernstein penned The Cavalier Daily’s first subjective response — a Nov. 20, 2014 column titled “Starting at the top.” While recognizing that the University had a problem with its approach to sexual assault, she wrote that the University represented one of roughly 90 other higher education institutions under federal investigation for their handling of sexual violence reporting that year, with critics alleging that administrators often allowed students found guilty of sexual assault to remain at the University.
Bernstein’s 2014 column also took issue with Erdely’s depiction of the University’s student body as lacking in feminist activism, arguing instead that responsibility for reform ultimately fell on the University. She referenced advocacy groups like One Less and One in Four — two organizations that worked to prevent sexual assault on Grounds — which were already supporting survivors, along with “Take Back the Night,” a student-run organization well-known for raising awareness about sexual violence.
Even before its retraction, Bernstein said Erdely’s reporting misrepresented the issue of sexual assault on college campuses.
“That’s the real disaster to me, of that article, whether it was accurate or inaccurate on the main story that it shared, it didn't portray the more standard experience of sexual assault,” Bernstein said this fall.
The retraction
Outlets like The Washington Post engaged in early efforts to fact-check “A Rape on Campus.” Reviewers critiqued Erdely’s journalistic decisions, namely in not contacting Jackie’s alleged attackers or the friends who allegedly met Jackie moments after the reported rape.
“Rolling Stone” retracted part of the article Dec. 5, citing general inconsistencies in Jackie’s story. Phi Kappa Psi released a statement the same day detailing specific holes in the publication’s reporting. Their internal investigation found the fraternity held no events the night of the alleged assault. The fraternity also confirmed pledging activities do not occur during the fall semester, and the unidentified man Jackie accused as her main attacker did not match profiles of any Phi Kappa Psi members based on details provided in the article.
Before the retraction, “A Rape on Campus” had echoed the story of Liz Seccuro — a Class of 1988 alumna gang-raped at a Phi Kappa Psi date party in 1984. Seccuro gave extensive interviews to assist with Erdely’s investigation and initially acted as a supporter of Jackie’s account. Yet in January 2015, Seccuro told The Washington Post she no longer believed Jackie’s allegations after reviewing the article. She said that Jackie may indeed have suffered some form of trauma, but the true story remained unknown.
The CPD officially suspended its investigation in March 2015 after finding no evidence supporting Jackie’s version of events. “Rolling Stone” retracted the story in full April 5.
Heskett said the outcome was “both a surprise and in some ways not a surprise.”
“I don't remember any specific reactions or policy changes or tone shifts as a result of the retraction, other than the continual process of being in the national news and this ongoing story that had us all reeling a little bit,” Heskett said.
In a similar vein, Bernstein called the drawn-out process of investigating Jackie’s claims a fatigue-inducing “slow burn.”
The day after the full retraction, The Cavalier Daily’s managing board published a statement saying the Columbia Journalism Review should have gone even further by interrogating how Erdely’s article negatively portrayed the University’s administrators and undervalued the work of its student activists. Bernstein, executive editor at the time, and other paper leaders reviewed how Erdely’s opinions leaked through the article’s narrative style — which they said created an inaccurate presentation of University culture.
“You know, that's a very awkward balance to strike, of feeling like this is a serious problem that you want to address thoughtfully, and then to also feel like this article didn't quite meet the mark in doing that … it seemed like the author was kind of delighting in portraying U.Va. in this incredibly stereotypical way,” Bernstein said this fall.
In ensuing reporting, the paper did not contact Jackie or further investigate her identity but did connect with several other students implicated in the “Rolling Stone” piece. Crotty later interviewed one of Jackie’s former friends sitting in a Newcomb windowsill. Although the student was quoted — in a misleading fashion — in Erdely’s article, he confirmed the reporter never reached out to him. In his conversation with Crotty, he said he almost cried after first reading the article — Erdely’s fabricated quotes, and the story itself, felt like “a betrayal.”
The story’s retraction sparked legal battles over Erdely’s depictions of Eramo and Phi Kappa Psi in “A Rape on Campus.” The University’s Phi Kappa Psi chapter announced plans to take legal action against the publication the day after the Columbia Journalism Review, with the fraternity pointing to “reckless reporting.” Eramo, who called the “Rolling Stone’s” apology and retraction “too little, too late,” later filed a defamation suit in May of 2015 against Erdely, the magazine and its publisher, Wenner Media.
Because Eramo’s case played out in Charlottesville’s U.S. District Court, The Cavalier Daily offered thorough coverage — an all-hands-on-deck effort given student’s conflicting class schedules and other involvements. Throughout fall of 2016, news editors coordinated shifts to have at least one Cavalier Daily reporter in the courthouse whenever possible.
For Higgins, who attended the trial while taking a class on media policy and law, the courtroom put her lectures into action. Currently a law student, she said the experience helped confirm her interest in the field.
“I would go to class, and we would be learning about First Amendment law — ‘what is defamation? What is libel?’” Higgins said. “And then I would get on the trolley to the downtown mall, to the courthouse, and watch one of the biggest defamation trials happen in real time.”
On the other hand, Crotty said reporting on the trial was particularly challenging since some of her friends knew people affected by the case.
“You have to take a step back and look at the facts versus your feelings,” Crotty said. “That was a little harder too, since that was the thing I had a more emotional response to.”
The University chapter of Phi Psi eventually settled with “Rolling Stone” for $1.65 million. The chapter said it planned to donate a portion of that money to groups involved in sexual assault prevention and awareness. Eramo would later win an undisclosed settlement from the publication.
Ten years later
Despite its retraction, the story’s scandal sparked certain institutional changes — since 2015, the University has required online Title IX and alcohol education training for all incoming first-year and transfer students, along with a bystander intervention program now called “Hoos got your back.” After being under federal Title IX investigation, the University began a revised policy in spring of 2015 for handling reports of sexual violence. And administration shifted sexual misconduct oversight from the Assoc. Dean of students to a newly-created full-time Title IX coordinator position.
From initial shockwaves to policy revisions and legal settlements, “A Rape on Campus” overlapped three Cavalier Daily managing boards and multiple recruitment cycles. Looking back ten years later, several former members of The Cavalier Daily still struggled with the student paper’s role in 2014. Should student journalists have used their insider status to scrutinize Jackie’s claims?
The staffers interviewed noted, however, that hindsight is 20/20.
“I think part of the reason that we didn't [probe more] was in response to how tense things were on campus, and the fact that we were a part of that community,” Heskett said. “But in retrospect, knowing what we knew, I wish that we had at least considered whether we should sort of raise those red flags publicly.”
The anonymous former writer said they used to be harsh on themselves about not pushing harder against the narrative presented in Erdely’s article. Now, however, they recognize the extent of the scandal was almost impossible to predict.
“We did get criticized a lot for not being the ones to break that the story was false,” they said. “But also, in hindsight, I think we need to give ourselves a little bit of grace about what our reporting priorities were at the time, the assumptions we made at the time, and also the fact that we were 18 to 21-year-olds trying to figure out how to navigate this very intense topic, and all the national media attention, and all the chaos that was associated.”
After the retraction, many at The Cavalier Daily worried the backlash might discourage other survivors from sharing their stories. Heskett said, although likely not Erdely’s intention, the “Rolling Stone” article felt like a step in the wrong direction — a “huge blow” — for the cause of supporting women and believing accusations of sexual assault.
“A Rape on Campus” influenced her approach to journalism, she said, and led her to rethink the field’s core purpose.
“To come in … already knowing the story that you want to tell is an irresponsible way of reporting,” Heskett said. “You really have to do the reporting and figure out what the story is, not the other way around.”
For a complete list of The Cavalier Daily’s coverage on the “Rolling Stone” article, see the archivist report.
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