♪ happens to you, happens to you ♪ ♪ happens to you happens to you ♪ ♪ till it happens to you you all know how i feel♪ good evening, i'm allison camerota. "the hunting ground" is a powerful film that sparks awide range of reactions. the filmmakers set out to tell the story from the point of view from the survivorsing or as the law calls them, accusers. during the next hour, cnn will bring you differing view points on this critically important topic. we wanted to begin this conversation by hearing from the presidents of the schools featured in the film but they declined our repeated invitations. over the last month, we asked the presidents of florida state university, notre dame, amhearst, st. mary's, uc

berkeley, university of connecticut, harvard, unc and six others to talk with us. every one of them declined. we offered to adjust time, date, location of the interviews to make it more convenient for them. they still declined. we also asked the president of the association of american universities, he declined as well. but one university administrator said yes, mike powers is the university of alaska fairbanks interim chancellor, and he felt this topic was so important, he traveled here to new york city from fairbanks, alaska, to join us. chancellor powers, thanks so much for being here. >> why did you feel it was important to come talk about this? >> it's a crisis on u.s. campuses, it needs to be changed. it's been with us time immemorial and enough's enough. that's the feeling we're receiving on our campus. >> you watched "the hunting ground" what was it about it that moved you. >> emotionally you felt heart broken for victims who came

forward. and i admire the courage which with they came forward to make a point of what's happening. i was angry with the -- with the response, lack of protections from universities, and i was absolutely outraged by the ignorance and the callousness of the entire communities that turned a deaf ear to these victims. >> it had a profound effect on you that you then wrote a letter to your campus community issuing a public apology. i mean you personally had nothing to apologize for. why did you feel that that was important? >> i think it's important for the entire higher education to come forward and make a change and to admit what is happening. we all know what is happening on college campuses. it may not be rampant across campuses, at the university of alaska i isn't my own children there. it's a safe campus, in many respects. however, these things happen,

and it's wrong, it and must be addressed. >> cnn did get a statement from fsu in which they said "the hunting ground" is a simplistic narrative that does a disservice to all universities and colleges. why do you feel so differently about engaging, about confronting it, than some of the other presidents do? >> because my own personal experience, because i know what is happening on campuses. i think -- you're turning a blind eye to what is happening. >> is there something about university of alaska fairbanks? is it happening more there, did you see it, were people reporting it more? why did you take action? >> no, it is no the happening more. but we're what seeing is an increase in awareness and more reporting being done, which is healthy. but as -- as someone aware of what is happening across campuses, we know this is an issue in america. >> chancellor mike powers, we really appreciate you coming in to talk about this tonight. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> let's turn to one of the most

controversial sections of "the hunting ground" takes place at harvard law school, where one student, camilla willingham, accused another, brandon winston of sexual assault. >> i went into the hearing and professors were like, did i give him the wrong message with the friendship. did he misunderstand the friendship. no, because sex was never part of the friendship, and if we're ever going to be introduced, when he was awake would be a good time for that. >> in the days leading to the premiere of the film, winston's attorney issues a press release publicly naming his client and saying the film is, quote, rife with inaccuracies that lawyer joins us now. thanks so much for being here. can you it'tell us your concern how your client was depicted in the film? >> it -- it appeals to me that it's a lie as to what happened and not only did the jury acquit

him of any of the charges connected in the case except for a lesser included minor misdemeanor, but the grand jury failed to indict him on anything to do with camilla willingham and they didn't believe her. and the harvard law school, when this case went up on appeal to the law fact ul it i, majority of the faculty decided that there wasn't enough evidence to find him responsible. and she was just not credible in the -- in any point in time. >> hold on one second. i between challenge you on that, mr. zalkind. sheep was credible enough that the first process, the process by which your client was expelled, did go in her favor. first when harvard looked at this case, they believed camilla's story, not your client's then what happened was there was an appeals process. let me finish. appeals process unlike any appeal process we know as

americans to be fair, camilla was not alerted there was an appeal happening. the appeals process only heard from your client. they only got his side of the story. she wasn't even part of it. and he was then reinstated at there were two different findings at harvard. >> i don't agree with you because the appeal process is a normal process in schools and i don't think you can criticize the harvard law school, which is a very ethical, honorable group of people, the best law school in america, probably -- >> i want too ask you about something you wrote in your press release. you said the accuser, camilla, quote, capitalized on her accusations to become a celebrity end quote. mr. zalkind, do you believe this is the kind of notoriety or celebrity that camilla would have wanted this kind of public scrutiny, this kind of embarrassment, to have to talk about what happened in her sex life?

>> it sure seems that way. i've seen videos of her in presentations, she's becoming a spokesman for -- for victims went she's not a victim. yeah, i believe she's cap toolizing on this, i believe she's making a career on this. she looks much happier when on tv than she was in the courtroom. she was not credible. >> mr. zalkind, i met her as well, i've seen her crying, look sensitive, i've seen her look distraught. that is your interpretation. and it's an awfully cynical one that she would want to go through, again, this sort of public scrutiny for four years in order to become, as you say, a celebrity. i do want to focus on the campus tribunal because that's one of the things we're talking about tonight, there's a dual justice system that many americans don't know about, so the idea that on campus there's an appeal that can happen, that is secret, that the accuser doesn't know about, that the accuser isn't told

about, the accuser is not part of, that's -- that is a flawed justice system. >> look, i'm not going to go into the details of what happened in that one, because i wasn't the attorney. but i've handled -- we've handled probably as many of these campus cases as anybody in the country, and we are not finding that a lot of universities, not all of them, but a lot of the universities, the procedures are unfair. at this point in time to males. so i don't agree with you, that it was a flaw. this was one of the best procedures that we had ever seen. >> do you think it's fair to the accuser not to have her be a part of it, an appeal. >> neither of them, neither of them are a part of it. they don't talk to pro-tefessor when coming to a decision. neither of them. he might have known it was happening, and i assume she knew, and she could have found out but he doesn't persuade them to do anything. they did this on the record. they did this by reading

transcripts and they had tapes of all of the hearings. it was a fair decision. and you can see that by the proceedings that happened. you are wrong if you think this was unfair. >> mr. zalkind we appreciate you being on to share that side of the story. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >> for the record, the accused, brandon winston, did participate in harvard's appeals process. he gave live testimony, via skype, and filed written objections. the acus coo ucuexcusexcuse cam nothing. required harvard law school to change that procedure, and allow each parties to participate in the discipline processing next from the white house screening to a grassroots movement, we'll look at the impact "the hunting ground" is already having on the national conversation.

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welcome back to the cnn special, sexual assault on campus. in the ten months since its debut, "the hunting ground" has grown from a film to a national movement for change. >> i pull outside and bang my head against the wall and was raped. >> reporter: since the sundance film festival premiere, "the hunting ground" has been screened at more than 700 campuses and venues nationwide, including the white house. >> it's on us to stop sexual assault. >> reporter:eddaing to that, president obama launched the

it's on us campaign. >> we're here to said today it's not on you. this is not your fight alone. this is on all of us. every one of us to fight campus sexual assault. >> it's consent. >> sex without it isn't sex. >> it's rape. >> and based on numerous studies, it's still happening at an alarming rate. a recent survey involving 27 universities shows 23% of women on college campuses, that's nearly 1 in 4, experiences sexual assault or misconduct. published in september, it's touted as one of the largest studies of its kind with more than 150,000 students participating. a low response rate, around 19%. also the survey relied on voluntary responses, not mandatory, so the sample was not scientific. what do you think of the findings of that survey? >> i have a lot of problems with the way that they defined

certain terms. >> such as. >> include conduct such as unwanted repeated dinner date requests, or telling an offensive sexual joke. >> attorney kimberly lau handled nearly 50 cases of sexual assault on college campuses defending mostly men. she says her clients are victims of overzealous college administrators. >> the pendulum has swung way too far in the other direction. what i'm saying from the male perspective is that these -- the cards are stacked against them. the second they walk in the door, they feel like they're being treated as guilty. >> look, four decades, schools refused to investigate these cases at all. survivors know the difference between the time that they maybe warrant crazy about a relationship they were in when somebody has sexual assaulted or sexually abused them. >> the governors of california

and new york recently signed laws. requiring colleges in their states to enforce affirmative consent, meaning everything other than yes means no. >> i think there will be a day that i won't be alive for it, but people will look back and say, how did we ever accept and tolerate that level of sexual violence? >> celebrities like lena dunham are also working towards that goal. done dunham urging 3 million twitter followers to see the film. lady gaga described herself as a victim of sexual assault, was so moved she let her voice to "the hunting ground" ♪ how it feels >> the song for the film has more than 19 views and counting. ♪ till it happens to you you won't know ♪ ♪ it won't be real >> we want to bring in our panel

now. we want to welcome stewart taylor, critic of the film and author of "until proven innocent" political injustice of the duke lacrosse rape case," editor of roll call and written extensively on sexual violence. welcome to all of you. stewart, i want to start with you. you are a critic of "the hunting ground." what's your biggest i've with it? >> well, let me, first, start with what's okay about it. it's rape is a huge, national problem. none of us disagree with that. the film makes that clear. there are heartbreaking stories told by rape victims, that's public service to show the stories infur rating episodes of disgusting male behavior, the film shows that. all that would be to the good. but for the fact on the wholing i submit this film is not an honesting truth seeking fair documentary. it's slick, skillful propaganda.

in the most general sense, it vastly exaggerates the amount of rape that goes on on campuses, as have a lot of other people, including the polls that are shown on the film, which are basically rigged polls, with phony questions. it also vastly understates how vigilant colleges are about pursuing allegations. in fact the disciplinary process in the colleges all across the country, in part because of the obama administration, is pervasively slanted against male -- accused males and their accused males all over the country have been expelled and branded as rapists for life who aren in. >> let's dig into some of the points you is raed. first in terms of the studies numbers have not been all over the place but vary somewhat. studies that have been done over the past 30 years in terms of what's going on on college campuses. but they all show that something is going on. they may identify forcible rape

differently than sexual assault, but it always comes back to something significant is happening on college campuses. melinda, respond to that, first. >> 4 out of the 5 major national surveys that have been done have shown pretty consistently that between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5 women have been sexually assaulted during college. >> john, you've been studying this for your book "ms. zola" men are now the victims. the pendulum has swung a little bit but it's got farther to swing. i -- what i saw in mizzou la and other cities campuses have not been vigilant about erasing sexual assault or punishing perpetrators and you know, it shows why colleges are so reluctant to -- to take courageous action on sexual assault. they don't want to hurt their

brands. they don't want to alienate donors. >> do you think the definitions are overly broad and skewing the results of what's going on on college campuses? >> i think the unwanted touching that critics always say is mixed in with the rape and attempted rape stats if you only look at rape, you still see 11%, 12%, 16%, 13%, in these major national studies. that's really high. that's an epidemic. >> most women don't report whatever happens. >> that's right. >> and the american association, american universities survey asked them, why didn't you report it? well, because this, because of that, because the other thing. 61%, if i remember correctly, because i didn't think it was serious enough. women who are supposed i raped. you think they thought they were raped? >> that's an interesting point than may have something to do more with culture than crime. john, why don't some people report if they have been rain

raped? >> there's a bunch of reasons. statistics show many, many rape victims did no want to admit to themselves they were raped. it's so up wsetting especially n acquaintance rape, you've lost so much trust, it's easier to deny to yourself to a rape. listen, i'm not making this up. there's plenty of science that shows this. so, there's all kind of reasons why women, the most typical response when a woman was -- is raped is to say call up her friend and say oh my god, was i just raped? i think i might have been raped. they don't say i was raped, i was raped. it too much to process. >> it's part of the healing process, part of the psychological trauma when you're in a situation like that, and that's really one of the things i appreciated so much about your book,hat miszul la goes into how normal it is for a woman who has been raped to try to -- to

try to deal with that by telling herself, this can have happened, this can have been that bad, can't -- you know, you're really in this state of suspended animation and freezing in a lot of cases. >> two points. i give women more credit than being adults than some do. i think if a woman says, no, i want rape. the people that do the surveys that we're hearing about, they don't buy that, they don't ask her, why you raped? they ask her other questions they interpret meaning she was raped. >> stick around. much more to talk about. up next, nfl quarterback jameis winston and hisaccuser how thei lives have changed since the release of the films. we have much more from our guests. give yourself the gift of a better network.

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welcome back to our special "sexual assault on campus" cnn has made several atemple is to interview student as the florida state university. fsu denied cnn's multiple requests for an interview. the school did send a statement questioning the film's accuracy and claiming, quote, fsu does not tolerate campus rape like other major universities we have been moving with uncommon institutional speed to meet new title ix requirements for

resolutions of sex i'ual complaints. let's bring in rachel nichols, how jameis winston's life and his accuser's has changed since the release. >> to put jameis winston into context, one of most high profile athletes ever accused of rape, heisman trophy winner, led his team to the college national championship. this year he game the nfl's number one overall draft pick. winston never was charged with a crime related to rape accusations at florida state he is facing a civil suit filed by his accuser, erica kinsman. >> i kind of want to knowing like, why me? >> reporter: erica kinsman says she repeatedly said no to jameis winston. >> i remember his roommate, whoever this other guy was, came in and he was saying, like,

dude, stop, like what are you doing. she's telling you to stop. >> reporter: but winston has strongly denied the allegations going so far as to file a countersuit for defamation. in legal filings his attorney says, kinsman has been inconsistent about the details of what happened that night. one point claiming she was drugged, an allegation that is absent from the lawsuit. i test run by a toxicologist no drugs in her system other than alcohol. the countersuit says, quote, miss kinsman did not do or say anything to express she did to want to engage in sex. winston claims his friend entered the bedroom to participate in the sexual acts or a prank. winston's presents who were present quote, stated they have no believe to miss kinsman and mr. winston were not engaged in consensual sex. kinsman filed suit against the florida state university board

of trustees. the suit says, quote, despite fsu police being on notice within an hour of the rape 2012, fsu athleticic department awareness of the rape, the incident was never reported to fsu's title ix coordinator. kinsman says she was subject to discrimination because fsu deliberately decided not to investigate and investigate winston's rape for close to two years so that winston's college football career would be unaffected. the university states, quote, no appropriate person at fsu had knowledge of the assault until november 8th, 2013. winston's attorney never responded to our requests. winston is far from the only college athlete who has been accused of rape. and fsu is far from the only school accused of falling short and handling these types of

cases. last august, sam, a defensive end at baylor university, was sentenced to six months in jail, and ten years' probation, for raping a fellow student in 2013. that's a much different judgment than baylor reached when it examined the case itself. acore cording to an investigation, the school didn't even see the hospital rape kit before, quote, clearing him. baylor university president ken starr since issued a statement, announcing the school has hired an outside firm to examine bay already's handling of the case. and just last month, uft cla punter was arrested on three counts of rape stemming from alleged assault of a student he met aan offcampus house party. in that case the university immediately suspended him from the team. >> they have to make certain athletics is not operating different friday music, physics, anything else. >> reporter: the chief medical officer for ncaa. if a high profile athlete is

accused of a crime, it is in the school or the program's best interest to have that go away. how do you resolve that with the fact that you want hopefully as an educational institution to see justice done? >> what your getting to the heart of is culture. how do you make a cultural shift? sometimes you can legislate culture but it doesn't work well. you need people to step up. >> reporter: hanline points out a rule passed by the s.e.c., it bans schools from taking players who have been dismissed from other schools for any sexual violence. >> that's when you have a change. people aren't perceiving there's a competitive advantage by keeping someone in, you hopefully turned it into a competitive disadvantage because then what you say, for me as a parent, do i want my son or daughter competing in that school where they overlook things like that and that's the culture that i'm exposing shy child to? >> reporter: ncaa published a

handbook on how athletic departments should handle sexual assault investigations but some say it doesn't go far enough, and the organization should implement a standard policy. >> you can have an athletic program that makes money. but if it's harming kids, no one's going to want their kids to go there i ould would be hap we can say the culture of speert has been so transformed parents know when their kids are being recruited they're going to a safe place. >> reporter: hainline calls that his, quote, cultural agreement. a long conversation with dr dr. hainline, he was open about the depth of the problem. a lot of colleges depend on millions of dollars the football or basketball programs bring in, and sometimes it's a player, point guard, who can make the difference between winning and losinging between the coach keeping his job or not. there's a huge conflict of

interest in a school taking rape allegation seriously and potentially stopping the gravy train. the real kicker the u.s. senate put out a report last year found 20% of schools it's policy to have the athletic department, not the larger school administration, be ones with oversight in investigating sexual violence against athletes. cases against athletes. the people who would most directly benefit from, hey, this rape didn't really happen, that idea, 20% of schools, those are the people that a victim would have to try to go to to get justice. >> rachel nichols, thank you. when we come back, our guests' reaction. who do they believe?

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welcome back to cnn special "sexual assault on campus." stuart, let me start with you, you've written now you believe "the hunting ground" set out to railroad jameis winston and ruin his career, as we have learned he's a starting quarterback in the nfl. meanwhile his accuser erica kinsman was as we saw in film mocked, marginalized, she felt she had to leave fsu as a result. so in other words, it leaves the impression erica kinsman's life was much more negatively affected than his was. >> probably was. for the reasons you give. but the real question is, did he rape her or not? i don't doubt there have been a lot of athletes that have done a

lot of raping in the country and some get coddled by colleges. my co-author and i talk about those cases and cases where the athlete was railroaded. the jameis winston is in between. i wouldn't bet money he's innocent. i think he's probably innocent. why do i think that? because the very good retired florida supreme court justice, major harding who heard his case for fsu and done aed have gee job, found not by a lot but a little at least as clear, his innocence was at least likely as his guilt. so -- >> go ahead. >> a measure harding said, i do not fintd credibility of one story substantially stronger than the other. in other words, he couldn't determine who was telling truth here and neither one had a substantial sort of hold on truth and accuracy. >> that's a fair statement.

and if i suggested otherwise earlier, i accept that. so did willie meggs a good prosecutor, more or less said the same thing. both emphasize something that this film, we are talking about the film, hides or hid until i exposed it and then they put a little bit in. >> go ahead. >> one, there are devastating hits on erica kinsman's capability when she -- when first called in she said i was hit on the head and i blacked out and woke up be raped in this guy's bed. oops, no head injury, dropped that right away. the story became, and "the hunting ground" the first time around, remains, i was drugged and woke up and so forth, was being raped. whoops, two, toxicology test look for 130 or so drug, look for no evidence of drug. when she testified at great length, no mention of being drugged.

let me stop you. >> she never said that she had a head injury. her friend, because she said her head hurt, reported that and it made that leap, made that assumption. she, herself, never reported having a head injury. and the tallahassee police had a very such a flawed investigation that it was not much of an investigation at all. the d.a. concluded, that he was very hobbled by the botched initial investigation. >> jon isn't this an illustration of what we see so on in these cases he said/she said. somehow investigators have to tri to parse who's saying the right thing, who is most believable after the fact, i know you believe, erica kinsman, but explain the challenges of when you have to figure out who's telling truth in these cases. >> when the police did zero investigation for, you know, 11 months and they never did any investigation, the prosecutor, who you praised so much, he never interviewed winston, never

requested cell phone record or video records. even with all of that, if you look at who is credible and who isn't, looing at the reaction of erica kinsman at the event, tweets, interviews, she was traumatized. she has never lied her representation is sterling. she's not promiscuous, she had the same boyfriend then as she does now. jameis winston's record of lying, repeatedly stole crab legs, two different stories. buddies with him, yeah we leave the door open we like to run a train on these girls. >> that's the thing, talk about the pendulum swinging to the other extreme i do not believe, where that might happen, it's another instance of the same problem. it's not the other extreme. and the problem is, not taking a serious problem seriously enough. all you have to do is investigate fully. it doesn't mean -- i don't want

to go -- >> it can solve the problem of false accusations. >> but you know, let's not assume it happened, let not assume it didn't happen. let's fully investigate each case in its own right all the way through, and if that happened, we wouldn't have the problem that you're alluding to. >> i concede a couple of points and add a couple of points. i'm not here as a character witness of jameis winston. he did steal crab legs. he behaved badly with erica kinsman, even if you believe his version. the question is whether there was rape. there's serious evidence casting grave doubt on her credibility. >> that's not true. >> her story's not changed at all. if -- the media -- you know, winston's lawyer got out and made false statements after false statements. there's been so much

misinformation. you preetrepeated it without chg it. >> hold on a second. the larger issue is this is one case, okay. we could do this foreevery single case, we could parse all of the evidence on either side to your point the investigators did not look for in evidence. but to the larger point, and i know you've looked at this at notre dame, in lots of places. are college athletes exempt because the school has such a sim buy theic relationship with them they can't have their reputations ruined? >> i don't want to paint with a broad brush as to say that always happens but, unfortunate fatally, in some of the cases i looked at, the kids who nobody, knobs from nowhere, also tended to get away with it because the school didn't want to have it known that this was a place where this kind of thing could go on, what you said about harming the brand. schools can be very, very protective, and want to look like this can't go on on my campus, which is why they want to keep the numbers of reports

low. >> melinda, stuart, jon thank you for the conversation. next, did a campus court ruin a san diego sophomore's life? a cnn investigation no parent will want to miss. when cigarette cravings hit, all i can think about is getting relief. only nicorette mini has a patented fast-dissolving formula. it starts to relieve sudden cravings fast. i never know when i'll need relief. that's why i only choose nicorette mini.

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welcome back to cnn special,

"sex i'll assault on campus" one of the first decisions, do i report this crime? if so, where? what victims of campus sexual assault may not realize there are two parallel justice systems. one in the criminal courts, the other a campus tribunal and they may have radically different outcomes. cnn's sarah begganham has been k too. >> reporter: a fellow student accused him of sexual misconduct, misschool, university of san diego, started investigating. >> i knew i had all of the evidence i needed to make this go away as quick as possible. >> reporter: the accusation came from a woman le had sexual relations with. she said some of the encounters were not consensual. he denies than his name has never been public, and he doesn't want his i didn't revealed. the university held a disciplinary hearing, like all schooled that receive federal

funding. ucsd is required to investigate and adjudicate sexual assault complaints of students most schools don't need to notify police. >> i didn't know what to expect. i thought it would be fair. >> reporter: the student says it wasn't fair. he was allowed to bring a lawyer but the lawyer couldn't speak and could only submit questions for the accuser in writing. >> we had a set of questions, 32 total, handed to the hearing officer, and then she started to skip questions and started to say, well, i'll not going to ask that. she wouldn't say why. >> had you ever seen anything like that before in a court hearing? >> no. it just doesn't happen. >> reporter: that's because, unlike court hearings, individual universities make up their own rules for the disciplinary tribunals the department of education requires the process be prompt, thorough, impartial. the university becomes prosecutor, jury, and judge. >> i tried to object a few times and they reminded me it was just a school hearing, and it wasn't criminal, so i wasn't allowed to

do that. >> reporter: in campus hearings guilt has a lower bar. it's not beyond a reasonable doubt but for most universities the standard is weather the accused is more likely than not responsible. in thus case, the ucsd hearing panel found the accuser was credible in her assertion he tried to digitally penetrate her and he ignored her objections. they ruled that, more likely than not, he violated the student code for sexual misconduct. every time he appealed his punishment was increased, with no explanation. when you learned you were suspended for more than a year from school, how did you feel? >> at that point i was pretty devastated because if i'm suspended or expelled from a school i don't have many options left in my future. >> reporter: so he took the university to court and in a highly publicized ruling a judge overturned the sanctions, ruling that ucsd's hearing was unfair

and that evidence did not support the findings. judge's ruling and would not he- comment for the story, citing pending litigation. >> i'm all for true victims of of rape to receive all of the assistance they need, but at the same time the accused students have rights. >> reporter: the ucsd case is one of more than 20 that have been brought to universities by students found responsible for misconduct. >> we'll see a lot more cases coming down. >> reporter: professor sook is a vocal critic of the tribunal process. >> what is unfortunate if they need cases, actually cases where someone has been raped what that means the up fair process will make the case vulnerable to being overturned and the victim will not be vindicated. >> reporter: suk believes universities are overreacting to a 2011 letter, written by the department of education which

said, sexual harassment of students, which includes abilities of sexual violence is, is a form of sex discrimination, prohibited by title ix. schools must adjudicate cases her risk losing federal funding. >> universities running scared they're going to be investigated by the department of education or found to have violated title ix. >> reporter: even advocates of the tribunals, like allison kiss, say that schools need to invest more time and money into training the people who are handling these cases. >> many campuses put people in charge of responding to sexual harassment and sexual assault who, quite frankly, should not be in charge of responding to sexual assault. >> reporter: and some say that means the process can be unfair for both the accused and the accuser. eva was a student at southern illinois university when she confided in a friend she was sexually assaulted. without telling her, the friend

reported to the university. eva says she was stunned when the administration notified her in an e-mail that they were investigating her case. were you reluctant to go through with the process? >> yes. i didn't want to do it. but they said we don't need your consent. this is happening. once it started, i had to beg and plead and call incessantly and ask the university to keep me notified, keep me aware, tell me what the next steps are, and they -- they just ignored my calls, they didn't respond, when they did they were not helpful. >> reporter: the school found him responsible and then what happened? >> they suspended him effective immediately for two years. and then he appealed. >> reporter: he won the appeal, it turns out, the university had the wrong date, the actual date of the alleged assault was beyond their statute of limitations, eva watch her case fall apart over a procedural

error. southern illinois university would not comment on eva's case, citing legal and privacy concerns, and told cnn the university takes all reports and investigations of sexual assault very seriously. >> i felt like i had survived a semester of torture, of being forced to relive what was the worst day of my life over and over again, and i felt like it was for nothing. >> reporter: even with the flaws in the university panels, some say it's still necessary to keep victims and campuses safe. when someone says to you these need to go away, every rape needs to be investigated by the police and a prosecutor's office, what do you say? >> the problem that we're seeing now is that, when students are coming forward, it's often long after an assault has happened so they may not have the option to get the forensic evidence or something that will hold up in a court of law. >> this is their only option. >> oftentimes their only option.

>> let's talk more about eva's case. you reported that her friend reported the incident, the alleged incident but not eva. why didn't she go to the authorities. >> eva, like so many of the women we've talked to as part of the story said she wanted to put this behind her and concentrate on her education. she had classes with the guy several times a week. she was scared of what would happen if she reported it and she wanted to move on and not relive the incident. she ended up having to relive it anyway through the process but she doesn't feel like she got any justice. this goes to the heart why advocates say tribunals have to exist because of the close proximity they have to each other on campus. they need some way to discipline when there is misconduct at a university. a police case can take months, years, they need immediacy in dealing with issues. >> help explain why some victims don't want to come forward. thanks so much for the

reporting. next, the filmmakers behind "the hunting ground" their chance to talk and address all of the issues right after this. give yourself the gift of a better network. get up to 50% off our hottest android smartphones, like the samsung galaxy s6. only till december 27th. i'm mary ellen, and i quit smoking with chantix. i have smoked for thirty years and by taking chantix, i was able to quit in three months. and that was amazing. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it absolutely reduced my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of mental health problems, which could get worse or of seizures. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it.

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welcome back. we've been talking about the film "the hunting ground" for the last hour. now, let's bring in the filmmakers. academy award nominated two-time

emmy winners kirby dick and aiming ziering. great to have you to talk about all of this. when you see the impact that your film has had in just the past less than a year, and you larry the conversation that we've been having tonight, is this what you expected, kirby? >> this is what i hoped. you know, i mean we've faced a problem, we made a film about a problem that had been covered up for decades. you never know how a film will impact the audiences, the country. this film has impacted the country since its premiere at sundance. there's nearly a thousand screenings on college campuses and each time it screens on a college campus it stars activism, discussion, change. >> one of the things that's striking about the film is how many students you got to talk to you on camera, women and men, one of the women in the film said she hadn't even told her mother yet. so, now how are they feeling now that their stories are public?

>> they're feeling empowered and validated if a way never before. it really been heartening to see how people are rallying around people coming forward, applauding them for their courage. what i noticed at every screening someone comes up to me and says, i was too scared to say something. thank you for this film, it makes me feel better others are out there talking. >> it's in the shadows, people keep secret, how few victims report rape, to go on camera, know they would be on national television it's a huge decision. >> an act of courage. this country owes a debt to everybody in the film. there's no question, without survivors coming forward and reporting assault, talking about the press, the public would not know about it and no opportunity for the perpetrator to be charged in anyway. >> people have been afraid 0 come forward because of the shame and stigma around the act. there's a lot of misconceptions

people are coming forward for sel self-grandizing. they're coming forward because they're trying to stop a crime being commit the on someone else. that's what i think the film shows. no one is coming forward for any other reason but just to try to have justice served and have someone not perpetrate this crime on someone else. >> right. >> why didn't you reach out to get the men's side of the story, those accused? >> we did reach out, and most of them, i think, all of them, refused to speak. >> all of them. >> all of the major subjected in our film declined interview requests. we did request. >> they say you were late in reaching out. why didn't you want to weave in their stories, their side, their version of what happened? >> because we were following multiple stories. following dozens of stories and we didn't know until late in the process which stories would be in the film. that was the reason. i mean, you know, when editing a documentary we edit the film right up to the end. we were editing after the

sundance premiere. we didn't want to go out to somebody if they weren't going to be in the film. the other thing that's key, other than jameis winston, whose name is public we didn't name any of the accused. we knew their names were not going to be out there. >> and yet, some of the stories are in the public record. some did go through investigations, as well as even court cases. why didn't you include, even if they rejected wanting to be interviewed on camera, why didn't you include their version that kale out in public documents? >> we included -- we actually what we did we went through thousands of pages, you know, in making this. we corroborated everything that was in this. what we really -- one of the things we wanted to show that hadn't been shown before is the perspective of the survivors, and we thought that was very, very important. >> last week, 19 harvard law professors reviewed the case on appe appeal, never any evidence that mr. winston used force nor even

charges that he used force, no evidence whatsoever introduced at trial that he was the one responsible for the inebriated state for the women portrayed in the film as victim nor was anybody vested with final decision making authority persuaded that mr. winston was guilty of any sexual assault offense at all. mr. winston was subjected to a long, harmful ordeal for no good reason. >> well, let's start from the beginning. the film does not say that brandon winston used force. the fact that these -- the these harvard law professors are implying the film did, when in fact it didn't, already raises credibility issues around the professors. secondly, the grand jury indicted him on two counts of sexual assault. keep this in mind, actually it's very rare when a survivor reports an assault to a police that the accused is even

arrested. it's about one in five. and that's even rarer it goes to prosecution, one in ten. everybody involved in law enforcement thought that this was a very credible case and moved it forward. in the end he was convicted. he was convicted. >> just to be clear, the grand jury in this case, indicted him, but he was convicted of something lesser? >> right. this happens all the time. it's very difficult to get a conviction for acquaintance rape particularly among students. . this is why prosecutors raurly take the case. the fact the prosecutor took the case shows a great deal of evidence this actually happened. and, again, to be clear, he -- he was convicted of, nonsexual assault, a misdemeanor and not of camilla, it was of her friend? >> correct. >> i'd like to say to law professors where have they been? if 98 times out of 100 women are telling truth and there's an epidemic of one in five getting

contested where are the letters? >> another school that you featured in the film fsu florida state university, in a letter to cnn, fsu, that's of course the school where jameis winston was accused of rape they call your film quote unfair. >> fsu says they provided a vic's advocate. they did take action toward the victim. and they took in an independent judge to investigate her case. what is your sigh? how do you respond? >> you know, erika has told her story four or five times on the record, and she has been completely consistent all the way through. she's extremely credible. whatt what happened here to fsu took two years for a case. fsu was aware of this problem. the florida state football coach, the florida state police,

was aware this assault had happened within two months of the assault happening. yet, they allow third down process to go on for two years. i mean, florida state has completely failed in this, and i think t"the new york times" did an excellent piece on this that showed conclusively how florida state has failed. >> you've heard there has been criticism of the film from different corners and attorneys. did any of that surprise you? >> no. you know, there hasn't been that much criticism. i think -- i want to say most schools have not been critical of this. the fact that so many schools have actually used this as a way of opening up discussion on their campuses, sometimes it's faculty or students or sometimes administrators. the vast majority of the schools have not been critical of this. they know this is a problem, and i think, you know, the fact that this school is compelling them to change in some ways, they wanted to do this themselves.

i was sitting down with one college president where there was a problem, and she said i need pressure to make change. this is giving them an opportunity. >> thank you both for being here and answering these questions. it's been a great conversation. >> thank you. >> thank you for spending the evening with cnn watching the hunting ground and discussing the challenges of trying to stop sexual assaults on cam can pus. this is an important conversation to have together and with our daughters and sons to make sure their college experience can be about learning and not about fear. if you are a victim of sexual assault looking for support tonight, you can call this free confidential hot line. it's 1 - 800-656-hope. you can also visit cnn.com/impact for more resources. thank you for watching.

liberating ramadi, iraqi forces continue to drive out isis fighters seizing a key government compound from the islamic militants. also, the long cleanup begins after deadly tornadoes decimate parts of texas. we'll have the latest on extreme weather across the u.s., which has claimed dozens of lives. and an unusual booming business in japan. the schoolgirl culture is everywhere, but is it crossing a dangerous line? welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm rosemary church. thanks for joining us. this is cnn news room.