“As of this morning, Brianna Brochu is no longer a student at the University of Hartford,” said the school’s president, Gregory S. Woodward. “She will not be returning to the institution.”
Credit
West Hartford Police Department
Ms. Rowe, a freshman at the university, described her roommate’s behavior in a Facebook video on Monday, and accused the school of attempting to keep the episode quiet.
She said that the revelations, posted on Instagram as she was moving out, had helped explain why she had been sick early in the school year, suffering from extreme throat pain that eventually made it difficult to sleep or speak.
Ms. Rowe said that she and Ms. Brochu had been placed together randomly and that their relationship had been tense.
“I moved out because I felt like I was unwanted in my own room,” she said.
As she was in the process of moving, Ms. Rowe said, other residents approached her about several posts Ms. Brochu had made on social media. They included pictures of bloodstains on Ms. Rowe’s backpack and videos of Ms. Rowe eating, with comments suggesting that the utensils she was using had been contaminated.
Ms. Brochu had already been charged by the time Ms. Rowe posted the video. But Ms. Rowe expressed frustration that it had taken so long for Ms. Brochu to be punished.
She said that school authorities had told her if she spoke out about the situation, she could be removed from her campus residence. And she said that race had been a factor in the school’s response, speculating that if she were white and Ms. Brochu were black, the investigation would have been more urgent.
“If the race roles were reversed, I feel like this would have gone down a different route,” she said.
The university’s undergraduate student body is 15 percent African-American, according to statistics posted on its website.
Ms. Rowe did not respond to emails requesting further comment on Wednesday.
Her video catapulted her experience into the news, with the hashtag #justiceforjazzy — based on the name she uses on Facebook — being used to spread her story.
In a statement posted online Tuesday, Mr. Woodward called Ms. Brochu’s behavior “reprehensible” and said that he was confident that the university had pursued the matter seriously.
“The university strictly and swiftly followed all procedural and legal processes related to this alleged event; claims to the contrary are based on misinformation,” he said. “The incident has brought about accusations of racism, and I want you to know that I hear and share your anger and frustration. Acts of racism, bias, bullying, or other abusive behaviors will not be tolerated on this campus.”
Mr. Woodward followed up on Wednesday with the statement announcing Ms. Brochu’s expulsion. That statement clarified the timeline, saying that the school’s public safety department became involved on Oct. 17 and that the case was turned over to the local authorities early the next day.
Molly Polk, a spokeswoman for the university, said that the school had followed its standard procedures, immediately referring the case to the police. She said that Mr. Woodward had not been accusing Ms. Rowe of spreading misinformation in his initial statement, and that he was instead referencing the almost instantaneous reaction to the video among people on social media.
Ms. Polk added that the residential staff had asked Ms. Rowe not to act on the matter on her own, but insisted that “their intention was never to try to keep her quiet.”
