Campus Safety is endeavoring to increase awareness and prevention of sexual assault on and around campus through a variety of outreach programs and the use of various security systems.
In accordance with the federal government’s Clery Act, Campus Safety is required annually to make public the crime statistics from the previous three years by Oct. 1.
The Clery Act (previously the Student Right to Know and Campus Security Act) was enacted in 1990 through the efforts of Jeanne Clery’s parents. Clery was murdered in 1986 at Lehigh University.
According to the 2006 report by Campus Safety, forcible sexual assaults increased from six in 2003 to 10 in 2004.
These numbers decreased in 2005 with three reported forcible sexual assaults. Two of these assaults occurred in on-campus residential buildings. These statistics include public property on the University Park Campus. All of the forcible sexual assaults in 2005 were forcible rape.
An ongoing effort to make DU campus safer has resulted in the use of over 250 CCTV cameras around campus, including residential halls, walkways, and parking garages.
More than 80 emergency phones with automatic caller ID are located throughout the campus.
Campus Safety also offers several of programs for students and faculty. These include R.A.D., a woman’s self-defense course; and Refuse To Be A Victim, a personal safety seminar open to both males and females.
Tyrone Mills, the associate director of Campus Safety, recommends three basic rules for safety. First, Mills said, students should use common sense.
Second, Mills said that students should be alert. Mills advises students to “watch how you communicate,” It is not only how one communicates verbally, but how students carry themselves and what they wear can affect their safety. Students should be “aware of their surroundings at all times,” said Mills.
Lastly, Mills said students should trust their instincts. According to Mills, instincts are an “alarming device.” If you don’t feel comfortable, leave.
Mills also warns that most sexual assaults are acquaintance or non-stranger sexual assault, meaning that the victim knows his or her attacker.
In all cases of reported sexual assault, Campus Safety works with the Denver Police Department to identify the attacker. Campus Safety posts crime alerts on the same day the attack occurred. The fliers can be found in “frequented areas” on campus, according to Mills.
Attackers are seldom caught in cases of sexual assault, said Mills.
According to the Campus Safety Web site, “Women ages 16 to 24 experiences [sic] rape at rates four times higher than the assault rape of all women making the college years the most vulnerable for women.”
Incidents of rape/sexual assault have fallen over 50 percent since 1993, according to the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.
According to the same network, sexual assault remains one of the most “underreported crimes, with more than half still being left unreported.”
