This is what Yale was for women when Brett Kavanaugh was there

When Brett Kavanaugh arrived at Yale University in 1983, there were boosts all over the campus until 15 years ago, women were not even allowed to go to school.

In many buildings, women had to go to the top floor or basement to find a bathroom to use, recalled Sandra Luckow, a director who graduated in 1987. Very early, students were housed on the upper floors of the dormitories, which led men to joke years later: "Yale, with the tradition of women at the top." , a former male student said during the question and answer portion of a meeting that the decision to admit female students had marked the fall of the institution.

"When I was a graduate student at Yale in the 80s, there were still big marble urinals in the women's bathrooms in the main library and in the gym that they were not taking. the trouble of sending we were maybe temporarily, "said Dana Frank, who is now a history professor at UC. Santa Cruz.

More than three decades later, the culture at Yale was examined by the public after many women accused Kavanaugh, now a Supreme Court candidate, of sexual assault. An alleged victim, Deborah Ramirez, tell the legislators that Kavanaugh pushed his cock into her face, forcing her to touch him, during his first year at the prestigious university. Kavanaugh's largely Republican supporters attempted to question Ramirez's allegations, arguing that if such an incident actually occurred, she would have reported it at that time.

But alumni who overlapped with Kavanaugh at Yale describe the university in the 1980s as a place where being a student still felt like a privilege, not a right; where excessive consumption of alcohol was common; where women felt that they had to endure bad behavior in men; and where some privileged men's groups seemed to be able to get away with it.

It was as if "we were there only by the graces of men," said Luckow, who now teaches film at the university. "There was this feeling that we were responsible for what men did to us."

Faced with the allegations of drunken sexual assault, Kavanaugh portrayed himself as a studious and single kid who avoided partying. "I went to a Catholic high school for boys, where I was focused on studies and athletics, going to church every Sunday and friendship with my classmates and friendship with girls. local Catholic schools for girls, "said Kavanaugh. interview with Fox News this week. "I did not have sex or sex in high school or for many years after that." But many of Kavanaugh's former classmates at Yale describe him and his fraternity brothers as heavy drinkers aggressive to women when they are drunk.

In his second year at Yale, Kavanaugh joined Delta Kappa Epsilon, a well-known fraternity on campus for mistreating women. Greek life was only beginning to return to the university at that time and joining a fraternity was an unusual gesture. DKE's promise was "a step forward," said a woman graduate in 1985 who requested anonymity to speak frankly about her experiences at Yale. "The guys from DKE were pigs. Horrible men. This is the kind of people [with whom] he chose to surround him, "she said, referring to Kavanaugh.

Of the dozens of Yale alumni with whom HuffPost spoke, almost all stated that the DKE brothers of those years were known as heavy drinkers who often degraded women and themselves by partying – especially during the rituals of promise and hazing.

Pictures of the DKE brothers' phone book taken while Kavanaugh was an undergraduate student and later, while attending Yale Law School, show students posing without pants around a drum, holding cups of beer. In a photo taken in 1988, the year after graduation from Kavanaugh, a student's testicles are clearly visible. In a 1991 photo, a student holds what appears to be a rifle. HuffPost got photos from the DKE directory taken between 1984 and 1991 – with the exception of 1987, the last year of Kavanaugh, when the photo of the fraternity was missing from the directory. We do not know if Kavanaugh himself appears on one of the photos.

The year Kavanaugh joined DKE, two of his fraternity brothers crossed the campus holding a flag in women's underwear. A member of the fraternity claimed that the underwear had been obtained.consensually, " but a classmate of Kavanaugh said that the DKE brothers would ransack undergarment women's rooms.

Several Yale women who spoke to HuffPost said that they had done everything they could to avoid the DKE holidays because of the fraternity's reputation of mistreating women. Participants in the "Take back the night" walk to raise awareness about sexual assault were reluctant to walk past DKE because they feared harassment, said Heather Gold, who was active in the fight against rape at Yale in the 1980s. .

There was a growing awareness of the threat of sexual assault in New Haven, Connecticut, in the 1980s. "It became clear that Yale women were worried about rape and that rape was an aspect of university life," writes Beth Morrow, promotion of 1987, in an essay published in this year's yearbook.

But he was still almost unknown for women to report sexual abuse, said women graduates. There was the fear of being labeled as a slut, of not being believed and being retraumatized in an island community where it was difficult for the victims to avoid their attackers, Gold said.

There were also not many resources available to women on campus. The women's center at the university was seen by most students as a place where feminist activists or lesbians, two alienating brands at the time, came together to recall two former students. The culture of silence has contributed to a system that has allowed powerful men to remain unpunished for abusing women – and perhaps not even recognizing their actions as abuses.

Bryan Cole, graduated in 1987 who was friends with Ramirez, said that his request seemed unfortunately plausible. "That it happens to a woman and that she is not comfortable talking about it does not surprise me," he told HuffPost.

"Unfortunately, guys like Kavanaugh still feel like they can behave this way, especially by drinking," Cole said. "There does not seem to be any consequences for your actions."

DKE's reputation has only gotten worse since Kavanaugh graduated. In 2011, the fraternity was banned from Yale for five years after videos of DKE recruits appeared in front of the Women's University Center: "No, yes, yes. means anal. Earlier this year, the Yale Daily News and Business Insider reported allegations of sexual assault against more than half a dozen DKE members, including the former president of the fraternity. Yale has launched an investigation on the subject.

Luckow asked Monday to his Yale students what they thought were allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh.

She was disappointed by the answer.

"It's exactly the same now as back then," a student told him. "Nothing will change."

This story has been updated with additional details.

Need help for? Visit RAINN National online hotline on sexual assault or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center Website.