Rapes rose 333 percent in 2006

On the homepage of its Web site, SMU recently announced a national magazine ranked it as one of the nation's safest campuses. The ranking was based on crime statistics from 2004 and 2005. SMU did not mention what happened in 2006: Thirteen women reported being raped on campus, compared with three in 2005.

Many SMU students said they were shocked to learn of the steep rise in reported rapes. Meg Bell, a junior at SMU and president of the Women's Interest Network, a student group focused on women's issues, said a 333 percent increase in sexual assaults is both "terrible" and "ridiculous."

Bell said that instead of keeping quiet, university officials "should have taken some direct, visible, definite, solid action."

SMU officials chose a different route. They never told the student body, parents or faculty members that women were reporting an average of one sexual assault a month on campus in 2006. It was not until October 2007-in a report required by the federal government - that SMU finally acknowledged that 13 women reported being raped on campus the previous year. Since then the university has said nothing publicly about the 13 forcible sexual assaults.

SMU Police Chief Richard Shafer said he is at a loss to explain the increase. "I don't know how to explain that," he said.

Karen Click, director of the SMU Women's Center, said the university does a good job of informing students about sexual assaults. "I think it's sufficient," she said. For example, said Click, SMU issues a crime alert whenever a student reports a sexual assault. "They always put out a crime alert, whether or not they involve me," she said.

SMU records tell a different story. In 2006, SMU issued crime alerts for just four of the eight on-campus sexual assaults reported to police. SMU issued no crime alerts for the other five rapes, which were reported to the Office of the Dean of Student Life, the Health Center, the Women's Center or other campus offices. Any administrative office can issue an alert, Shafer said.

According to police records, most of the victims-and most of the suspects - were SMU students. Women said they were sexually assaulted in fraternity houses, the SMU Apartments and at least two dormitories. One woman told police that three men raped her in her car while it was parked in the lot in front of Moore Hall.

SMU reported one rape on campus in 2004, three in 2005 and 13 in 2006. Click said she does not believe sexual assaults increased dramatically in 2006. "My assumption is that it is not an increase in the number of assaults," she said. "It's an increase in reporting." Click said she was unaware 13 women reported being raped on campus in 2006 until being informed by The Daily Campus.

Dr. Victoria Lockwood, an anthropology professor at SMU who co-chaired the President's Commission on the Status of Women from 2004 to 2006, said she is aware of the increase and does not dismiss its importance.

"It's absolutely something to be concerned about," she said.

Police records give no indication that anyone was successfully prosecuted in connection with the 13 rapes. Shafer, who has been at SMU since 1999, said he could not say when a suspect accused of rape at SMU was successfully prosecuted.

One reason for the lack of success may lie in the university's decision to provide little information about the reported rapes. In nine cases, SMU did not issue crime alerts informing students and faculty members that a student reported being sexually assaulted on campus. When it did, the information was vague at best. With rare exceptions, there was no description of the suspect. No specific location. No details about what happened. No follow-up information.

The 13 on-campus rapes reported at SMU in 2006 are significantly higher than the number reported at other area universities that year. Texas Christian University reported five sexual assaults. The University of North Texas, whose student body is three times as large as SMU's, reported one rape. The University of Texas at Arlington reported none.

Few SMU students said they were aware of the 333 percent increase in reported sexual assaults on campus in 2006. When The Daily Campus polled students to ask if they knew about this, 90 percent said no.

"I didn't know that, and I'm an RA and we usually get more information than normal students," said Jamila Benkato, a junior who serves as a resident assistant in Mary Hay.

For most SMU students, it is as if the sexual assaults never took place. But the victims know what happened. They do their best to pick up the pieces, despite being invisible to the SMU community.

Dr. Joci Caldwell-Ryan understands. While attending graduate school at SMU several years ago, she was raped in her Oak Lawn apartment by an intruder who entered through a window.

Afterward, Dr. Caldwell-Ryan went to a store to buy materials to repair the window. When she told the clerk what happened, "the clerk said, 'Well, don't you think you should report this to the police?' " recalled Dr. Caldwell-Ryan, a lecturer in women's studies at SMU since 1998. "And I'm like, yeah! I ought to. I just thought it was my problem."

FAILURE TO INFORM

On Jan. 21, 2006, two SMU students, one male and one female, met at a fraternity party. The female student said that later, the male student took her to his dorm room and raped her. On March 3, a female SMU student told campus police her boyfriend raped her at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house. On March 4, a female SMU student said a male SMU student attempted to rape her at a fraternity house.

Three sexual assaults were reported on the SMU campus in six weeks. In each case, the reported rape took place at a fraternity house or immediately after a fraternity party. In each case, the victim was an SMU student who reported the sexual assault to campus police or other campus officials. And in each case, SMU did not issue a crime alert telling other students what happened.