VCU should go beyond requirements to ensure student safety

Staff Editorial

Around 2:45 a.m. Tuesday morning, a woman at the Rite-Aid at the corner of Broad and Belvidere streets was allegedly forcibly taken into a car, driven into the Jackson Ward neighborhood and then raped. By 9:30 a.m. the next morning, Richmond Police had changed the crime to be a “suspicious incident” rather than an abduction/rape.

VCU reports crime as per the Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities that participate in the federal financial aid program to report certain types of crimes that happen on or near campus to the campus community. According to Mike Porter at VCUNews, VCU often reports on crimes that happen in the area surrounding campus, though they aren’t obligated to.

The crime was posted on VCU’s online alert page, but a timely warning email and text message was never sent out. According to the university, they wanted to hold off on sending out a warning on the crime, so as not to panic the student body.

It might be presumptuous to cause an uproar by sending out an alert about a crime whose nature could change the next morning–but it goes the other way too: it might be presumptuous to assume a case will change–what if the alleged rape hadn’t been downgraded by the Richmond Police to a suspicious incident?

Would it still be presumptuous and not necessary to alert the student body just because the crime was technically off campus?

The panic here comes not from the crime, but the lack of communication about said incident to the VCU community. Whether it be a suspicious incident or not, the campus population has a right to know that such a situation occurred so close to campus.

There’s something to be said about the proximity of a crime to campus. Tuesday’s alleged incident apparently happened on Belvidere Street, just across from VCU’s Broad and Belvidere residency hall and within a neighborhood where students are known to live. The entire incident happened a literal stone’s throw away from campus and at a location often frequented by students.

The issue with the incident is not whether or not it stayed classified as a rape but that, to the general populace’s knowledge at the time of the incident, it was a rape. If there was more information available to VCU, the least they could do is tell the VCU community that they had reason to believe that there wasn’t a direct threat to students.

Ignoring serious crime or trying to sweep it under the rug doesn’t make it go away. The incident Tuesday morning was two-fold, as it involved an abduction as well. Students can’t be vigilant in protecting themselves if they don’t know what to protect themselves against. VCU’s crime alerts are meant to help students be aware of the conditions of their surroundings. With no warning, they can’t be, which creates a potential for more crime to happen.

There have been text messages and emails for almost every major crime on campus and even some off campus (mostly regarding burglaries and robberies in the Fan), but on Tuesday night, VCU’s alert system was oddly quiet.

VCU Police did technically fulfill their responsibility. They abided by the Clery Act and they did post a warning on their online VCU Alert page. There were no email or text alerts though, which are the primary methods that many students find out about VCU alerts. Early in the semester with new students on campus, being proactive is better than assuming every student has the thought to wake up and check the VCU Alerts website.

The line between where VCU’s campus starts and ends is arbitrary to students; we don’t care for technicalities. VCU may not have violated any laws, but they failed to properly alert students to a clear and present danger. Even if the circumstances of the crime were to change, it would have been prudent to alert students, so they could take the necessary precautions.

Regardless as to whether the incident was an abduction and rape, or just a case of suspicious activity, VCU students should have been promptly notified that that particular area was to be avoided, for whatever suspicious activity or reasoning. It’s disappointing that a university so plagued with criticism about crime as of late did not think it necessary to send out a simple text.