A vile incident inside a New York University dorm room has now turned into a pissing match between the alleged victim and the school.
NYU sophomore Eloni Belcher claimed her roommate urinated on her as she slept in their shared dorm room inside the Broome Street Residence Hall.
The Tisch School of the Arts student told The Post she was roused from slumber shortly before 5:30 a.m. on April 12 by her allegedly inebriated roommate, who was squatting over her and peeing.
“It was horrible,” said Belcher, 19. “I thought we were friends.”
As she realized what was happening, Belcher went to block her face with her arms — at which point, her roommate proceeded to pee on them, she recalled.
The Michigan-native, at NYU on a full-ride scholarship, said she fought the overwhelming urge to retaliate against her 20-year-old roomie.
“I knew if I did anything to hurt her, even something in the moment, I would receive the brunt of the punishment,” she said. “I know that if you get into a fight on campus, everyone involved gets punished.”
The roommate urinated on her clothing, bedding, and mattress, she said — evidence she provided to school officials.
“They made me move to a different room” inside the same dorm “when I asked for temporary housing,” explained Belcher. “I asked why I had to move, and they asked, ‘What do you expect? You want us to kick her out?’ And I said, ‘Yes.’
“They were telling me it was my only viable option, moving out,” she continued, “and I did — but they’ve disregarded what has happened to me.”
The roommate claimed she was sleepwalking, said Belcher, who would not identify the young woman.
The Post spoke to the suspected leaker this week, and she denied the allegations.
“That’s not really my vibe,” the woman explained. “I think she’s lying.”
The woman called the matter “an ongoing case,” and told The Post she has already been interviewed by police, with no charges filed.
The two apparently never had any real problems, though Belcher noted she’d asked the roommate to lower her voice while talking on the phone the day before the downpour.
Belcher filed complaints with NYU’s Department of Campus Safety and Office of Student Conduct, and later, with the NYPD, which confirmed receiving a report about the alleged urine harassment.
The ex-roommate “apologized and fled to the restroom” after relieving herself on Belcher, police said.
Belcher learned from school officials on April 15 they hadn’t even started investigating her claims, and decided to vent about the situation in an Instagram video, now seen by more than 4 million people.
“I was assaulted,” she insisted in the video. “Why would I uproot my entire life three weeks before [the end of the semester] for nothing?”
The university has since informed her that she is “being investigated now for posting [that video],” Belcher claimed. “They’re trying to turn this around on me. I guess we can’t use our freedom of speech anymore.”
“It’s been very frustrating,” she told The Post. “NYU’s just deliberate mishandling of my case has been confusing to me. I genuinely believed if anything happened to me that was this serious, it would be handled appropriately. I never thought that it would get to this point.”
NYU spokesperson John Beckman told The Post “the alleged behavior is concerning, and we have taken the entire matter seriously since it came to our attention. We respectfully disagree with the characterizations that the University wasn’t concerned about the student’s welfare, didn’t promptly engage the Office of Student Conduct, didn’t inquire about retaliation and threats, or didn’t try to fulfill what we believed to be the student’s wishes. Safety is our top priority — always.”
Beckman would not confirm Belcher was being probed, or her roommate disciplined, adding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act “prohibits universities from disclosing information about students’ disciplinary records.”
Read the full article here
