Spartan Daily

Sexual assaults at SJSU, messaging system spreading awareness

Last semester seven sexual batteries occurred on and around the SJSU campus from August to October, four of which took place next to a school building, according to Detective Sergeant Manuel Aguayo of the investigations and crime prevention unit of the University Police Department.

“Not all sexual assaults are the same,” Aguayo said. “There are different levels, the most serious is a rape incident.”

Aguayo said sexual battery is defined as intimate touching of body parts without the consent of the victim.

“(It’s) not a rape," he said. "It’s on a different level, but still illegal."

Other types of rape include an adult having sex with a minor, which according to Aguayo, is “rare on a college campus but it has happened before…we did investigate one last (semester).”

According to Aguayo, the majority of rape incidents at SJSU involve acquaintances, and typically drugs or alcohol as well.

“We get specific requests from sororities, fraternities and student organizations for our officers to give presentations about what to look for, how to avoid that situation and what to do if you are sexually assaulted,” Aguayo said.

An important tool the UPD uses in addressing campus safety is the emergency alert system, he said.

Part of the SJSU community was notified of last semester’s sexual batteries by the alert system, which is a voluntary network implemented in 2008, according to Aguayo.

This system allows students and faculty to sign up for notifications of serious incidents on or around campus and these notifications can go out in the form of a text message via cell phone, a more detailed email update or a voice mail bulletin, he said.

“At last count (the number of students and faculty signed up for the safety alerts) was somewhere around 18,000 to 19,000,” Aguayo said in November.

Despite that number, there are still some students who have not signed up for the notifications.

“It just never crossed my mind,” Michael Wong, a third-year occupational therapy major, said. “I didn’t even know that they had a text message system.”

Last semester, Harman Kaar, a fourth-year biochemistry major, said that most of her friends are signed-up, but she hasn't.

Aguayo said it's a matter of student preference on delivery method when it comes to getting them to sign up.

“It’s like any other subscription services," he said. "We recommend it because we want students to be informed.”

Karr said, “I try to avoid those situations, so if something happens I’ll try to ignore that part of the building…for a couple of weeks then it gets back to normal.”

As for changes to the alert system this semester, Aguayo said the campus police are always looking for ways to streamline and improve the system.

“The reason we send out the alerts,” Aguayo said, “is to make (students) aware so they can take the necessary precautions.”

Taking the Valley Transportation Authority light rail to and from school is an everyday reality for some SJSU students, like Kaar, who said she used to commute with friends but was not able to last semester due to conflicting schedules.

“It’s kind of bad at night,” Kaar said, “but in the morning all you see is students, so that’s kind of safe.”

For students who find themselves walking alone at night, the school offers an evening guide program accessible through the bluelight phones located around campus, where an officer can escort anyone within a two-block radius of campus, Aguayo said.

He said there are some recent developments on extending that radius, but they are not ready to be released.

Despite some reservations regarding safety to and from the light rail at certain times of the day, when it comes to feeling safe on campus Kaar said, “No doubts about that one.”

"If there are more events — you know, assaults — that happen on campus I definitely feel less safe," Wong said. "But I didn’t really hear about (the recent incidents)."

According to Aguayo there are steps students can take to help prevent such incidents from happening to them, including “(to) avoid walking alone at night or in secluded areas, walk in well-lit areas, have your keys ready and immediately report crimes and suspicious activity.”

“I do (feel safe),” Amber Shine, a second-year nursing major, said. “It just seems like a safe campus, safe environment. I’ve never personally had anything happen.”

If an incident does occur, Aguayo said he hopes students are not afraid to contact the UPD immediately.

“If you need to take precautions do so," he said. "That’s why we send (the text alerts) out.”