The rape allegation against JD.com CEO and billionaire Richard Liu by a young Chinese student that erupted in late August has cut short the progress made in the recent years by the University of Minnesota against sexual misconduct in the campus.
The university has been at the forefront of the fight against sexual misconduct as it conducts state audit and implement new campus rules to prevent faculty members' sexual advances on students. Now, the one step the university has taken, suffered two steps back when Liu's case happened - this was according to The New York Times which was first to cast the spotlight on the observation.
In 2017, more victims were encouraged to report sexual assaults as the university promote a welcoming environment for doing so. There were 12 out of 68 sexual harassment cases reported to the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus that was officially brought to the police in 2017.
Kristen Houlton Shaw, executive director of nonprofit Sexual Violence Center, told NYT that the rape case allegation against the billionaire CEO of JD.com placed the university in a dilemma where it wants to safeguard its students while upholding the good reputation it builds against sexual misconduct.
The situation is set to become worse for the university as Liu was enrolled in its Doctor of Business Administration Degree program which was opened to international business executives who want to further their studies.
The program, being conducted in partnership with China's Tsinghua University, is said to be targeting wealthy businessmen from across the world and is expected to bring in more than $10 million in tuition for the university since it started in 2017. The tuition per student is estimated to be at $85,000.
Shaw described the program as a "major moneymaker" for the University of Minnesota. The moment the alleged case against the Chinese billionaire erupted two months ago, the university's future enrollees are keeping an eye on how the institution will react.
Sri Zaheer, a dean at the university's Carlson School of Management which run the degree program, told NYT that the program was extremely selective of its enrollees and primarily attracts businessmen who are already successful in their fields.
The program is designed with the majority of the syllabus to be taken in China and students only travel to the university for a week during their second year. Liu was believed to be in this part of the program when the purported rape happened. The particular class he was attending at the time of the incident has an itinerary which included dinner cruises at night. The student he allegedly sexually harassed had only volunteered under the program.
The Carlson School of Management and the University of Minnesota refused to comment on the matter.
The university is not alone in bearing the brunt of the controversy. In October, Liu dropped from number 16 to number 45 in Forbes list of China's richest people. According to Forbes, the billionaire's net worth fell by 34 percent to $6.2 billion.
Shares of JD.com also fell by 25 percent in late August, coinciding to Liu's arrest regarding the case.
Liu had since denied any wrongdoing and authorities have yet to set a deadline for his case until now.
