Around 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Notre Dame Police Department notified the Notre Dame community of a rape reported on campus via email. The alert specified a female victim reported she had been raped by an unknown male perpetrator in a Jordan Hall of Science restroom early Tuesday afternoon.
“At this time, the suspect is described as male, but no further description is available. It was reported that the offender was unknown to the victim,” the email read.
According to the email, the victim initially reported the incident to Notre Dame’s Office of Institutional Equity, and NDPD is working on the incident in collaboration with the Office.
University spokesperson Erin Blasko shared that NDPD will conduct increased safety patrols while the University reviews the incident. Notre Dame is encouraging community members with knowledge of the reported sexual assault to contact the Office of Institutional Equity at 574-631-0444 or equity@nd.edu.
“The safety and security of all students, staff, faculty, and visitors is the University of Notre Dame’s utmost concern,” Blasko wrote in a statement to The Observer.
The email concluded with details on the University’s sex-based misconduct policy and reminders that “On college campuses, perpetrators are more likely to assault an acquaintance than a stranger,” and, “The perpetrator, not the survivor, is responsible for any instance of sexual assault. Nothing a survivor does or does not do is an excuse for sexual assault.”
The email also pointed students to the ND Safe App’s “Mobile Blue Light” safety feature as well as additional resources available from NDPD and the Office of Institutional Equity.
The University has not issued a crime alert since 2023, when the campus community was made aware of drink spiking in a male residence hall. In 2021, students were alerted that the Office of Institutional Equity had found that a rape occurred on campus.
In April, a university spokesman stated in an email to The Observer that NDPD only sends out crime alerts when “there is an ongoing threat to the University community, and the report is sufficiently timely such that a warning will aid in the prevention of similar crimes.”
On Aug. 15, Sept. 17 and 26, sexual batteries were reported in NDPD’s daily crime log. On Sept. 24, an incident of rape was reported in the crime log. During the 2024-25 academic year, NDPD filed five reports of rape and five reports of sexual assault in the crime log.
NDPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
