Memories can run short in a college town.
It has been four years, and to many students, the name Katy Benoit does not ring a bell.
Even fewer students know the story behind the bench dedicated to her memory on the East side of the Administration Lawn.
“Students will come in without that institutional knowledge, but it”s important that they don”t forget,” said University of Idaho Dean of Students Blaine Eckles, who came to campus this summer after 20 years at Boise State University. “We lost a member of the Vandal family, and we have to work hard every day to avoid that.”
Nina Rydalch | Argonaut
A bench dedicated to Katy Benoit is placed outside the University of Idaho Administration Building.
In 2011, Benoit was a UI graduate student studying psychology and Ernesto Bustamante was an associate professor in the department.
Bustamante, who was at the time on medication for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety and depression, had engaged in sexual relationships with multiple female students, including Benoit.
Rowdy Hope, a man who described himself as Bustamante”s best friend, said he had seen Bustamante exhibit seven distinct personalities – two who he called “The Beast” and “The Psychopathic Killer.”
Multiple student evaluations claimed he often spoke inappropriately about violence in class and sometimes made sexual comments towards particular students.
Benoit broke up with Bustamante after he threatened her with a gun on three separate occasions. The Argonaut reported on the story following the shooting. She also reported him to the university and the Moscow Police Department.
As complaints mounted against Bustamante, he gave the university his resignation, knowing once he was no longer employed there was nothing that could be done about the accusations.
University officials then met with Benoit to inform her of Bustamante”s last day on campus, and recommended she should remain vigilant in the days before classes started. She was urged to call Moscow police if she felt the need to.
Days later, on Aug. 23, 2011, Benoit was baking cookies with her roommates in her Moscow home. She stepped outside for a cigarette and Bustamante shot her 11 times. He was found in a Moscow hotel room the next day, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Almost every administrator who was involved in the aftermath of Benoit”s murder has since left campus.
What has changed
When students experience sexual harassment or assault, it can impede their ability to go to class, live in a residence hall or spend time in a certain community. This has the potential to impact the accessibility of their education, said Erin Agidius, interim director of the Office of Human Rights, Access and Inclusion.
Since she”s been at UI, Agidius said she”s already seen the university make huge strides to address sexual harassment and assault.
When Virginia Solan started the Green Dot Intervention training program three years ago, Agidius said the Office of Violence Prevention often had to beg people to sign up for training sessions.
Now, Agidius said they often have the opposite problem – so many people want the training, but the office doesn”t have enough personnel to keep up with demand.
She said universities nationwide are also implementing Title IX coordinator and investigator positions.
Lindsay Ewan, UI Title IX investigator and former Moscow police officer, said her role is to act as an objective, neutral party to investigate all complaints that are made to the university, whether it”s an offensive flier on a bulletin board or something more serious, and to ensure the university acts in compliance with Title IX.
“Keeping campus safe is the most important thing, but it”s also important to make sure you”re being fair to everyone involved,” Ewan said. “It”s what I”ve been doing my whole career.”
Agidius also serves as the campus Title IX Coordinator, serving as the liaison between the Title IX investigator and campus administrators. Under Title IX, she said it”s UI”s mission to ensure students have equal access to instruction and education without risk of discrimination based on gender or sex.
Even though she was on campus in 2011, Agidius said that as a law student, she was often out of the loop with what was happening in the rest of the Vandal community – subsequently, she didn”t quite feel the shock the rest of campus experienced when Benoit was murdered.
When she gauges four years of change at UI, she thinks back to the Dear Colleague letter of April 2011.
The 2011 letter, sent to universities nationwide from the Department of Education, informed faculty and staff that everyone on a college campus was a mandatory reporter. This meant that any staff member who suspected sexual violence or abuse – excluding professionals in campus counseling centers – was required to report it to the university.
Though that standard was set months before Benoit”s murder, Agidius said perhaps the university community was still adjusting to it.
A follow-up Dear Colleague letter was released in 2014, revising the original advice in the 2011 column. Now, Agidius said, there are more exceptions to the mandatory reporting rule, and the university community is once again trying to adapt to the pendulum of a landscape that is ever-changed by new precedents and lawsuits.
Eckles said he can”t speak to the student evaluation process four years ago, since this is his first semester on campus. However, he said, he has faith in the university”s current system.
“There isn”t a systematic review from the Dean of Students, nor should there be,” Eckles said. “What I do know is we empower all faculty and staff to communicate that information in the reviews.”
A week in dedication
The first Campus Safety Week was held following the first anniversary of Benoit”s death. Eckles said the annual event serves as a healthy reminder to students that sexual violence is something everyone has to work together to stop.
“There”s a nice culture of leadership here,” Eckles said. “Right off the bat, we”re providing students with bystander intervention education, and when students start to get to sophomore, junior, senior levels, they have a broader understanding of caring for one another.”
Eckles said he”s impressed by how aware UI students are of sexual violence prevention and how proactive they strive to be in addressing it.
“As first year students learn the culture, they start understanding their role in perpetuating a positive culture on campus,” Eckles said.
This year”s Campus Safety Week will feature a Safety Walk, which will pass by Benoit”s memorial bench, and a Take Back the Night rally.
The week will culminate in the Katy Benoit Safety Forum at the Kenworthy Performing Arts Centre. The film that will be shown this year is “The Hunting Ground,” which tells the stories of several college-aged women who feel their claims of sexual assault were silenced by their universities.
“The “Hunting Ground” is a great example of the perception that universities care more about their image and upholding their reputation than they care about their students,” Agidius said.
Agidius said that while many universities are trying to stop the film from being shown on their campuses because it harms their mission to protect students, she believes the film is important because it brings light and attention to an issue that needs attention.
“I don”t want to say universities are perfect and they do this right every single time,” Agidius said. “However, it”s clear that not every institution does this poorly. Not every institution is looking to preserve an image over protecting its students.”
Hannah Shirley can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @itshannah7