A Call for More Information: When Crime On Campus Goes Unreported To Students
It’s 10 p.m. on Friday night. Students are usually meandering around campus. They are looking for parties to get into, hoping to kick back and have a good night with friends. Alcohol is present; inhibitions are low. On any given night, things can go from the best night of your life, to the worst, in a single moment.
Weekend nights on a college campus will never change. There will always be parties happening. But an incident on campus on Sept. 22 is begging to be discussed, if only in a healthy and effective way.
Around midnight, a call was placed to the Marquette University Police Department regarding an alleged sexual assault case at on the corner of 19th and Kilbourn in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I live nearby, but I had no idea what was going on. I was told by other students at the scene that police put the house on lockdown – that no one was coming in and no one was coming out.
At Marquette, if the student body is in harm’s way, an alert goes out to the entire university via email or text. Recently, there have been cases involving police that have seemingly gone unreported to the student body by the typical methods. One morning, police arrived at my doorstep asking if I had any information because “thieves were still actively on the loose,” yet students like myself were living right next door and knew nothing about it. Students like me needed more information, and it begs the question: Are we really safe?
In the incident on Sept. 22, I think most students could agree it was smart to call the police. According to The Marquette Wire, the victim was taken to the hospital for treatment and the suspect taken into custody and written up to be sent to student conduct. But the lack of information provided to students in a timely manner was a failure on the university’s part. There is no need for specific details or names due to the sensitivity of the event, but students continued to walk around for parties as if nothing was wrong – not realizing they could have been in danger and leaving some to wonder if it was another burglary or just a noise complaint. Turns out, it was neither, and it was way worse.
The only information disbursed was by the school’s newspaper, The Marquette Wire. Although I appreciate the intent since it was the only media source that informed students of the incident, I think the publication chose the wrong angle by discussing how Tasers were drawn on students, but not used, and calling out MUPD instead of focusing on the assault.
Though The Wire’s article was released early the next day and shared on social media, it was not a sufficient way to inform students about the incident. The article was updated Sept. 25 following a statement released by Marquette on the role of Title IX office. However, Marquette’s statement had no mention of Sept. 22’s events.
To me, it feels as though the administration has problems addressing an uncomfortable topic like assault or are trying to avoid a public relations scandal.
I am not writing this article to attack MUPD’s efforts or criticize how the university chooses to discipline students involved. I have the utmost respect for the Marquette University Police Department and all that they do to keep us safe. But I am hoping this article will open the conversation as a call for more communication about crimes that occur on campus, especially ones of a sexual nature.
As a college woman, I stand by any woman’s decision to keep an incident like this private. However, there is an absence of transparency on campus. When something as public as the events on Sept. 22 happen, students have a right to know that everything has been handled.
Marquette needs to do better.