By Marielis Aguiar and Michelle Gomez
The biggest crime at Cal State Northridge has been rape assault crimes. A female CSU Northridge student was raped in an off-campus alleyway after leaving the school’s annual Big Show XV event at 9 p.m. over the weekend on October 3,2015, according to CSUN police. Big Show is an annual event sponsored by CSUN Associated Students and is produced “for students, by students”. In other words, tickets are not sold to either alumni, faculty staff, or the public. The female student was prevented from entering Big Show on Saturday and walked towards her friends apartment near Prairie street just off of Reseda Boulevard. She was leaving the event when someone grabbed her from behind. She was then sexually assaulted by a man in the alley between Prairie and Vincennes Street. Soon the student was transported to a nearby hospital the LAPD reported. Police claimed that her injuries were not serious.
On a Tuesday morning, an email was sent out by Chief Anne Glavin from campus police regarding the sexual assault that was reported during Big Show on Saturday, three days after the fact. The suspect was described a hispanic male with a mustache around 130 to 150 pounds, a similar vague description as the first assault.
According to Jennifer Benitez, a senior at APB believes that students in APB should be aware of these possible dangers when applying to college.
“It would be good to know the environment that they are staying at but I feel that students themselves should investigate for themselves because everyone is applying to different universities and each has it’s own flaw that students focus on” she said.
She added that she would take these rape cases into consideration because she wants to be in a safe environment.
“ I know that the world is a dangerous place but at least I would know that there is a less possibility of a dangerous situation” she said.
Alexis also mentioned that students “should know of any risk no matter how minimal” when applying to universities.
When asked what he thought about these rape cases he said “Well I obviously think they are unfortunate, but I feel more should be done to prevent it.”
There have been many of these cases leading parents and students questioning the security in CSUN. Therefore, CSUN is trying to find a solution for these rape cases. They already have Matador Patrol on campus and at student housing that can walk with them to and from if they have to. There are also security bike paroles that patrol student housing and the parking lots until two in the morning. In addition, they have campus police located on Darby Avenue and Prairie Street. The campus cops in CSUN can alert and give sexual assault prevention tips to students. Alexis Lao said that he believed that these rape cases were unfortunate and more should be done to stop them.
Besides reporting an assault to a police on campus, a witness or victim can report a crime while remaining unidentified on an anonymous sexual assault form that is available online.The CSUN police department also has a rape crisis advocate on staff and officers trained to handle sexual assault.
However, despite having all of these helpful resources, sexual assaults are still occurring and not one representative from the school has come to discuss the rape case.
