Another Angle | Sexual Assault Information not timely

Amanda Melillo Opinions Editor

When students arrived back on campus amidst a flurry of unpacking, book purchasing, and the start of new classes, a campus email was sent from Donald Marsala, Director of Security, entitled "Unfounded Rumor." Word had it that six rapes occurred on campus last year, when in fact none had been reported. A student and a separate parent had voiced concerns to Security, thus prompting an email to the student body assuring us that no rapes had in fact occurred and our beautiful campus is safe and secure, but students should always remember to use their best judgment.

Shortly thereafter, a follow-up email was sent to the effect of, "Not to say that sexual assault doesn't occur here..."

There is no question that sexual assault does in fact occur at Vassar. As organizations such as CARES present, statistically one in four college women falls victim to sexual assault. Over 40 percent of these instances are never even spoken about. It goes without saying that it happens here and reports are never filed. But whether or not sexual assault occurs at Vassar is not the point.

The point is that we, as students, are misinformed about the rate of occurrence on our own campus.
The emails piqued my curiosity, so I visited the Security website to see if the information is made readily available to the public. I clicked on a link leading to "Federally Mandated Crime Statistics." Statistics list everything from sexual assault to robbery and hate crimes to alcohol violations. But the years listed only spanned from 1999 to 2002.

Statistical information from 2002 hardly seems relevant when we are nearing the end of September in 2004.

So I went a little further and called the Security Office. Associate Director Kim Squillace kindly explained to me that under the Cleary Act, the College is required to report crime statistics at the end of each year. If a student is interested, said student can either sojourn over to the Security office in the outer reaches of campus to browse through the crime log or, as I had done, simply click the link on their browser to find the information.

When I asked why there is no published information for the 2003 statistics as of yet, Officer Squillace informed me that it will become available in October, as dictated under the Cleary Act. I find it curious that it takes an entire nine months to inform the student body that no sexual assaults occurred last year, particularly when Security has a computer program that allegedly offers them immediate information.

Under the Cleary Act, colleges must report statistics for the entire year, rather than by semester or school year, which would seem more logical to me for the sake of continuity. Publication of this information is also not required until quite some time after the year's end--in fact, it takes so long to assemble the information that it no longer seems pertinent. The student body receives e-mail briefs each time a suspicious person is seen entering a dorm or when a student is accosted late at night on Collegeview Ave. We even read security bulletins in The Miscellany News each week about students receiving alcohol citations or having marijuana confiscated. If we are kept so up-to-date on issues such as these, why not sexual assault reporting as well?

While it is reassuring to know that Vassar does comply with federal mandates on reporting information, is this enough for the student body? Shouldn't incoming freshmen each be able to visit the Security website and receive current information? If campus statistics were updated sooner than nearly a year after occurrence, perhaps Security would not be receiving calls from worried students about "unfounded rumors." Parents would be put more at ease to be informed of the low occurrence of sexual assault reporting, as is the case on our campus, or at least be made aware if it should happen. And the student body would not have to receive emails about the safety of our campus, followed by a rebuttal email to undermine our confidence in the system.

It seems that if Security really wants to reassure us of the safety on campus, they should have relevant statistical information to support such a statement. Perhaps their focus ought to be upon the students that they are protecting than the leisurely time requirements of state mandates. Since Security does have a computer program to input the data, perhaps we should make use of what computers are for--a faster, more convenient way of reporting information to keep the student body informed and aware.