The St. Joseph County Special Victims Unit is investigating an alleged rape of a student in a Saint Mary's residence hall late Saturday, Nov. 3 into early Sunday, Nov. 4, according to Gwen O'Brien, the College's director of media relations.
"The College took immediate actions upon learning of the alleged incident and is cooperating with the investigation," O'Brien said. "Saint Mary's College has no comment at this time due to that ongoing police investigation."
Vice President for Student Affairs Karen Johnson said the student body did not receive an email about the incident because she was confident the alleged assailant was no longer on campus and there was no danger to the campus community.
"That decision is made by me in consultation with our Director of Security and the Assistant Vice President for student Affairs," Johnson said. "There are three levels of notification we use when an incident happens: immediate and ongoing threat to the campus community - in that case, we use our early alert system, ongoing but not immediate threat to the campus community - in that case, we send out a safety notice; and no immediate or ongoing threat to the campus community - in that case, we do a report on the safety website."
Johnson said notifications to the student body are determined on a case-by case basis and are based on level of immediacy and level of threat.
"We want our students to have enough information to be safe," Johnson said. "If we feel there is an ongoing concern or threat, we notify."
