While it is crucial that colleges and universities put sexual assault at the forefront, it’s important that they do so in a sensitive and empowering way.

Syracuse University peer institution Boston University recently issued a campus-wide alert after an alleged sexual assault, currently under police investigation, occurred in one of its dorms, according to BU News Service. Shortly after the report was filed with BU police, the university sent out alerts over both email and text message to the university community that same day.

BU’s alert is forthright way to put sexual assault on the university’s radar and indicates that the school cares about students’ wellbeing. Still, text message alerts about sexual assault could contribute to unease for rape survivors and others on campus. In regard to SU’s own system, Orange Alert, universities should make sure immediate, campus-wide systems are used for overall threats in the community.

Like the BU Alert system, Orange Alert comprises text message and email. It also includes a phone call and a siren, and extends to the State University of New York’s College of Environmental Science and Forestry community. SU’s Department of Public Safety addresses reported incidents of sexual assault independently of the Orange Alert system with email public safety notices.

SU’s current method of alerting the community of assault via email is effective and works well for two reasons. First, it gets assault information out without causing the internal and external panic that a phone call or text message would. Second, it maintains that Orange Alerts are reserved for immediate, campus-wide threats, such as an active shooter.

Letting faculty, students and staff know about sexual assault should be of utmost importance for colleges and universities. But if rape survivors are getting text messages or receiving phone calls about instances of sexual assault, it can be triggering and can cause concern for isolated incidents.

The objectives of each alert system are very similar: BU Alert was created for the purpose of communicating “a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat” to the university community. Under SU’s Division of Campus Safety and Emergency Services, Orange Alerts are intended to inform students, faculty and staff of a “crisis in progress” or an “immediate threat of physical harm to members of the campus community.”

A key phrase that sets SU part is the concept of a crisis in progress. Sexual assaults, when reported, are subjective experiences that, once reported, aren’t in progress. There needs to be a time factor for a threatening event in order for it to merit a text message and phone call.

Of course, sexual assault is a prevalent issue on college campuses and is a threat to the student body. In this way, it’s clear BU is taking the matter seriously and for that, the university should be commended. But when it comes to the means of notifying students, the intent of Orange Alerts at SU should not be diminished when sexual assault doesn’t warrant this kind of approach moving into future cases.

Published on October 31, 2016 at 10:49 pm

Contact: opinion@dailyorange.com