So RedRum is right about sexual assaults and such things on college campuses. And Yale is being sued currently for mishandling (or not addressing at all) formal charges of this nature. And KTex's post is also dead on, since Yale is trying to investigate how deep and wide the issues are.
Also, the "informal" nature of the charges aren't really a degree of severity. It is as much a reflection of an institution that treats these types of charges incredulously, or just the difficulty in proving charges such as these. I wouldn't exonerate him just on the "informality". If the details I've been told are true, then it isn't particularly vague or innocent. The victim did not wish to endure the embarrassment of a long drawn out process. As often happens, the process was handled on a campus level and didn't result in anything of note. Yale simply wouldn't provide the additional reference that the Rhodes trust wanted after they learned of the charge. The whole thing stayed in a non-disciplinary process.
I can't say whether his decision to withdraw had to do with the fact that he knew he wouldn't get the scholarship without an additional reference from Yale or not. I would think it had something to do with it. The Rhodes folks have a lot of people who want their money and so they do their homework. They wanted to know what was going on. FWIW I don't think Witt really lied about what happened, just that he didn't provide details on his reasoning, which is his right. Certain media outlets wanted to make a statement about how he was valuing school pride and team over this opportunity which probably wasn't true. In fact, if a story smelled fishy it was the one where he wouldn't have skipped the game for the chance at a Rhodes scholarship. I mean, it's a rivalry game, but nobody in the past fifteen years has recounted the great "so-and-so" from the game. The event itself is more about witty stadium taunts between students and the leader's of tomorrow (or the children of the owners of the world today) getting piss drunk.
As far as him being off campus now, it really doesn't have anything to do with the charge. He went through a non-disciplinary process. There were no sanctions other than the fact that the institution couldn't offer a character reference to the Rhodes folks. It
isn't common for Yale students in their final semester to not be enrolled in classes while they work on their thesis, but it does happen. Normally what happens is a student walks with the class and gets an unsigned diploma because they haven't completed it and have to finish it the next year. In his case it makes sense to me that he would want to work out and shoot for the NFL if he can.
As to his relationship to and with Nebraska, I will say that he showed up to a few Nebraska games at the watch site in Meriden (on days when he had an early game or no game at all). He was always pulling for the Huskers so I don't think he harbored any real ill will. He just had an opportunity for a more well recognized degree. It's tough to blame the kid for that. He was always laid back and never wanted attention.
Here's a link to the
Yale Daily news article which is basically the Witt camp's response to all of this.