George Washington University recently sent out an e-mail alert to their students to inform them of eight separate accounts of sexual assault that had been reported over the last few weeks. These e-mails are all too familiar to AU students who have had to sift through our own spate of Public Safety e-mail alerts. The catch with GW's alerts? Not all of them happened on their campus. In fact, some weren't even in the tri-state area. Some instances reported to the GW students hadn't even happened in the last few years. GW's media relations director said the e-mails were meant to educate their students about sexual assaults.
It's noble to educate students about sexual assault. People should be aware of the dangers they face and that bad things do actually happen. But at what cost? Alerting students to crimes that happened more than two years ago seems more likely to cause confusion and fear when there need be none. Rather than alert students to crimes that have no direct bearing to the university, energy should be focused on the crimes that do matter - most notably, the ones that happened recently.
The GW administration's reaction shows just how difficult it is for colleges to react to sexual assaults. Don't do enough and you leave your students at risk. Do too much and you can create a problem that was never really there. The axiom "better safe than sorry" holds true. It is better to let students know of potential risks and give them the tools with which to keep themselves safe. At the same time, it is important that college administrations realize that most students don't read these e-mails carefully. More likely than not, they hear about the more inflammatory ones secondhand. We've all played the game Telephone before and we know what happens. An e-mail will be twisted, so instead of acting as a public safety announcement, it acts as a catalyst for irrational fears.
GW's mishandling of this situation is an opportunity for AU to learn how to handle our own safety issues. Tell people too many times they will be sexually assaulted and they just may start believing it. Instead, let people know about only the pertinent and pressing issues, and then work to stop crime at the root by being there to stop it from happening. Time will tell whether AU's response to the recent spate of sexual assaults on Massachusetts and Nebraska Avenue is enough. According to many students, there doesn't seem to be much more of a police presence around campus. Still, there haven't been any reported incidents either. Lets hope AU uses more than just words to protect us.
