University of Alaska Anchorage - Making sense of the stats

Living in a state with the highest rate of sexual assaults per capita, it is reassuring to know that only one of the 257 rapes reported in Anchorage in 2007 occurred at UAA.

The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act require that every university that participate in federal student aid programs must disclose information about crime on their campuses. The act is a response to 19-year-old Clery's rape and murder at her residence hall at Lehigh University in 1986. Clery's parents found out after her death that 38 violent crimes had occurred on campus in the three years prior.

According to our Campus Safety and Security Report 08, 139 liquor law violations and 25 drug law violations were recorded in 2007. The report also shows that there was only one forcible sex offense recorded on campus.

The Anchorage Police Department considers UAA in it's South Anchorage service district, where there were 154 cases of sexual assault reported in 2007 according to numbers provided by APD. That is the highest number of assaults in all Anchorage's reported districts.

At UAF, four sex offenses were reported in 2007. The city of Fairbanks has a smaller population size than Anchorage and the student body at UAF is just under 10,000 students - about half the number that UAA has.

UAA's report shows that a number of students on campus are partaking in the consumption of alcohol, a substance that is proven to alter judgment, so it's a surprise that the number of sexual assaults on campus remains so low.

For the incident of rape to be documented and accounted for, it must first be reported by the victim. And while many victims do not step forward following an assault, as a student body we should be able to report any criminal incident at any time without fear or worry.

In the case of a sexual assault, The Sexual Assault Reponse Team will report to the crime scene. This team is made up of a state trooper or a police officer, a nurse examiner, and a STAR advocate, who is present to support the victim. Although our school has this team of expertise to offer students in the incidence of a sexual assault, it is possible that some sexual assaults are not being reported to the officials.

Students must be educated on the presence of sexual assaults and all crime, for that matter, on campus and in the community, in order to better protect themselves and be aware of what takes place on our campus.