Author: Rachel Stober|Emily Shugerman
Reports from local media on Wednesday about an alleged rape near campus came as a surprise to students, who are now organizing a Facebook protest. Although Campus Safety and other campus officials were aware of the report as early as Sunday night, students received no notice of the event until today.
Notice came in the form of an email from Dean of Students and Vice President for Student Affairs Barbara Avery, informing the campus community that two students were involved in a reported sexual assault this previous weekend. Avery’s email also stated that separate investigations by Occidental and the Los Angeles Police Department are underway. She explained that the college did not send an email sooner due to federal student privacy laws and because the situation presented no ongoing threat.
“Had this been a case where a student was assaulted by a person unknown, or a case where the College determined that there was a continuing threat, we would have immediately issued a campus alert, as we have in the past,” she wrote.
The alleged assault occurred shortly after midnight on Sunday night at an off-campus party on the 4900 block of Rangeview Ave., according to an NBC report. Details of the investigation are kept private under Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) policy, but Officer Nina Preciado commented on what is known of the incident. “It was two students from Occidental [involved in the incident],” Perciado said. “They do know each other. It’s not one of those cases of some stranger in the neighborhood attacking girls.” Perciado confirmed that the identity of the suspect is known, and the investigation by LAPD is ongoing.
Occidental is in the process of a simultaneous investigation. “We take reports like this very seriously and conduct our own investigation regardless of whether law enforcement is involved,” Director of Communications Jim Tranquada told CBS.
Mainstream media coverage of the incident began last night with articles and video reports from outlets such as NBC, ABC and KTLA. A video report on CBS featured a student concern that she had not received a report of the incident.
Director of Campus Safety Holly Nieto said Campus Safety was not directly involved in the incident’s report or the college’s current investigation and is only learning of the details as LAPD releases them.
“There are privacy acts that protect both parties in this case, but if I felt there was an occurrence where we had an undergoing threat to our student body, we’d be putting out absolutely as much information as we could,” Nieto said. “We do know that LAPD is active in their investigations, and we are assisting them with that investigation as we can.”
The college does not usually report alleged violations of the sexual assault policy by students to the campus until and unless the college’s judicial process finds the student responsible, but students are pressing them to start.
Before Avery’s email, much of students’ information came from media reports, some of which implied that the assault was a stranger rape. This led many students to worry about their safety and the lack of administrative response. Economics major Jessica Madarang (junior) was alerted of the incident when her friend told her about seeing news vans on campus.
“I was just searching online to see if I could find something, and I found [the CBS video report],” Madarang said. “I was just shocked that the administration hadn’t told us anything.”
After Avery’s email, students continued to advocate enhanced administrative communication regarding sexual assault via Facebook statuses which state: “I STRONGLY BELIEVE ANY RAPIST (WHETHER THE RAPIST IS AN OXY STUDENT OR NOT) POSES A CONTINUOUS THREAT TO OUR SAFETY. SHARE IF YOU’RE WITH ME!” Students Hailey Jures (junior), Estrella Lucero (junior), Shayna Asher-Schapiro (senior) and Carly Mee (senior) of the Occidental Sexual Assault Coalition started a Facebook event inviting students to protest the administration’s handling of the incident in a march starting at the fountain tomorrow at 12:30 p.m.
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