Last Wednesday, a young woman was ‘indecently assaulted’ in the basement of the College of Arts and Sciences while waiting for an elevator (‘BUPD searches for suspect in reported CAS assault,’ Jan. 27, p. 1). While the attack itself and its circumstances were shocking, the fact that many students heard the story first on the local evening news was even more worrisome.
Boston University has in place an extensive and efficient emergency alert system that utilizes text messages, phone calls and emails to notify all students and staff of potential threats on campus. The system is tested at the beginning of every semester and has been used to alert students of robberies and potentially suspicious persons.
Inexplicably, and much to our dismay, the BU administration chose not to utilize this system to notify students of this real threat. Additionally, the only formal acknowledgement of the incident came on the Boston University Police Department’s website a week after the incident occurred.
As two women who represent some of the sixty percent of BU’s Charles River campus student population, an assault in our neighborhood being blatantly ignored by those in charge is absolutely horrifying. ‘Indecent assault’ is an umbrella term that can be easily applied to several kinds of situations, none of which should ever be overlooked.
We normally feel very safe on campus, but this recent development has made us question how devoted our school is to women’s safety and well-being.
What does it take, BU?
Ali Irwin and Allyson Galle, CAS 2012 ‘