I’m guessing this was because Brown invariably told the other schools that this student had been expelled.
This is where Universities differ from employers. If company 1 fires you, and you apply for employment at company 2, and company 2 calls company 1 and asks if you were really employed there, and company 1 says you were fired, they open themselves up to a huge defamation lawsuit. Thus, companies don’t tell other companies that a given employee was “fired” anymore. Company 1 will merely tell company 2 that you worked there from thus-and-such start date to thus-and-such ending date, and keep everything else confidential.
Perhaps universities should adopt a similar policy.
Any student confronted with a harassment accusation should consult a lawyer immediately. Here is a long article that is definitely worth reading about date rape in college and how it can affect both the rapist and the victim. In particular, statements made to the Harvard Administrative board could be used to impeach the testimony of the alleged rapist, despite the total lack of procedural safeguards.
I don’t know what actually happened to these two people, and who’s “right” or “wrong,” but it’s worth considering the predicament of each of them and how they looked at the same situation through different eyes.