A crime alert was emailed to all California State University, Stanislaus students on Feb. 6 informing them about a sexual assault that had taken place in the Village on Jan. 29.
The assault was not reported to the University Police Department (UPD) until approximately a week later, on Feb. 4. The crime alert given stated that the suspect is a CSU Stanislaus student but is currently not in custody. The suspect is said to have “restricted access,” which was described by Associate Vice President of Communication and Public Affairs, Tim Lynch, as suspension from the CSU Stanislaus campus until further investigation .
After the incident took place Annabelle Bautista, Coordinator for Resident Engagement and Community Housing and Residential Life, informed residents of additional plans that the Village is now implementing to inform students on how to be aware and cautious in situations such as these.
“We’ve started off the year with the RA’s getting Title IX training so they go through almost, I wanna say almost four hours, of complete training on how to assist with any type of sexual assault whether it has to do with rape, dating, whoever they know,” Bautista said.
Many other actions have been taken to make students feel more comfortable confiding in someone about an incident that has happened to them or one they may have witnessed.
“So we have the visual, we have role playing that we do, scenarios every single month that the RA’s do on every single floor,” Bautista said. “So it’s something that was implemented this year because it’s like okay, what else can we do if they are not paying attention to the visual.”
The Village has always had many informational visuals available throughout the quadrants giving students information about drinking and taking precautions in numerous situations along with ways to receive help.
“For visuals we have boards, visual information boards, that are changed out every single month that have to do with any type of harassment, sexual assault, what you can do to protect yourself so that those things do not happen to you,” said Bautista.
The university recently hired Sarah Beal as the first full-time Victim Advocate, giving students the option to confidentially communicate any concerns or situations they may have experienced.
“This coming year we wouldn’t be surprised if the number of sexual assault reports had gone up,” Lynch said. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing because as a university we are really being proactive, well we aren’t the only university, but the university is being much more proactive in trying to empower victims to come forward.”
The Campus Crime Alert also gave students a list of tips on how to prevent a similar situation happening to oneself. Some prevention tips included were, “Protect yourself, please be mindful of who you allow into to your residence and where they are allowed to go within the residence. Remember the situation is not your fault; it is the person who is making you uncomfortable that is to blame.”
Anyone looking to get in contact with the Title IX office can either go to Mary Stuart Rogers building suite 300, or contact UPD for more information and updates at 209-667-3114.