The Longwood University Police Department (LUPD) has released the results of the department’s sexual assault survey, revealing what LUPD Chief of Police Bob Beach called somewhat “surprising” but “encouraging” responses from students.
The survey, which received 732 responses, was available to students from Nov. 8-14, 2012. The LUPD conducted the survey in conjunction with the department’s 2012-13 initiative to focus on the issues of sexual assault, harassment and misconduct on campus.
“We weren’t doing enough to help students understand what they can do to protect themselves,” Beach said. “I felt we weren’t doing enough to encourage students to come forward with information so that these predators, these people that feel they can do such horrible things to another person ... they will not have a free ride.”
While Beach said the LUPD does not have “a dramatic number of sexual assaults reported to us — we have a miniscule amount, almost none — the reality is that I know that sexual misconduct, sexual assaults, do occur.”
There were two reported forcible sex offenses on campus and two in residence halls in 2011, according to the university’s 2011 Annual Safety and Security Report.
However, Beach said some cases are reported later on, such as a recent report from a woman who experienced a sexual assault on campus about 20 years ago. He said sexual assaults are “life changing,” and the woman made the report later because it has “such a dramatic effect on her life now.”
Caroline Nye, LUPD public relations and social media management intern, compiled the survey with the assistance of Beach and other campus partners, including the Health and Wellness Center staff.
According to Nye’s survey write-up, “an overwhelming amount of students agreed that they knew who to contact if they or a friend were sexually assaulted and that sexual assaults should be reported to the police.”
When asked who they would report to if they experienced, witnessed or learned of a sexual assault, 70 percent of students said they would report it to the police department or other authority figures (e.g., RA, REC, faculty or staff), 27 percent said they would only tell a close friend and three percent would most likely tell no one about the assault.
About six percent of students surveyed said they were victims of sexual assaults and eight percent of responders had witnessed such a circumstance. However, this question was skipped the most out of all the questions in the survey.
According to Beach, a common reason why students do not always report sexual assaults is because “there is this false rumor going around that says, ‘I can’t report it because I’m underage, and I’ve been drinking, and I’ll be charged with an alcohol offense.’” However, Beach said that after some research, the LUPD has found that victims have never been charged with an alcohol offense in these circumstances.
Beach does not want people to not report sexual assaults out of fear or shame.
“It’s hard work, it’s diligent, it’s tough on the victims, but the fact of the matter is a young woman needs to be able to feel safe,” Beach said.
One of the open-ended questions asking for student recommendations revealed that some students would like for LUPD officers to be more approachable.
Beach said he encourages the officers to reach out to students and even visit residence halls and other areas on campus to speak with them. Some students have complained about officers going inside the residence halls because students felt like they were being watched, but he said this is not the intention.
“Making ourselves approachable is something we’re constantly trying to do, and I encourage students to reach out to us and be part of that process by making themselves available to us and making that a two-way street,” said Beach.
The survey results also revealed that most of the students who responded had not reviewed the university’s sexual misconduct policies, nor were they aware of where to find them.
“Educating students may be an important factor in eliminating sexual assault at Longwood and assuring students that there are resources on and off campus that deal with sexual assaults,” Nye reported in her write-up.
About 93 percent of students surveyed said they felt completely safe during business hours on campus. About half of students felt safe after business hours, while the other half felt neutral.
While the survey reported that students felt “somewhat safe to safe” at off-campus locations (e.g., Buffalo Street, gas stations, off-campus apartment complexes, etc.) during business hours, they felt the least safe at these locations after business hours.
Beach was pleased that overall, students had a “pretty good sense of safety.”
Students had the following recommendations regarding reporting and assisting with sexual assault cases: the LUPD taking each case seriously, confidentiality of reported information, strengthening the relationship between LUPD and students, providing rewards for information if feasible, holding seminars during New Lancer Days, assurance that students under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol during the assault will not be punished and offering more Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) classes.
As for student recommendations for a safer campus, among the suggestions were improved lighting in parking lots, more blue light telephones on and off campus, a greater presence of LUPD officers on campus at night and raising awareness of the Night Walkers program.
“We’re going to find a way to implement programs or to try to find ways to touch these recommendations and to complete what they have suggested,” said Beach.
Beach said among the improvements the LUPD and other campus partners plan to make in the near future will most likely be better lighting in some parking lots once students return to campus from Spring Break, the addition of blue light emergency telephones on Buffalo Street and an increase of the number of RAD classes offered.
Ultimately, Beach said, “If we’re gonna have a safe community, it’s going to take the responsibility of all of us to step up to the level of saying, ‘You know what, I do have some personal responsibility to keep the community I live in safe, and if I see something that’s not right, if I see something that looks out of the way, I’m going to let someone know.”
