The man suspected of committing sexual assaults on students off campus near AU has not yet been caught and is suspected of committing similar attacks on students near other campuses like Georgetown University and George Washington University, according to AU Public Safety Director Chief Michael McNair.
Messages and alerts from campus police offices are becoming a regular occurrence in the e-mail inboxes of AU and George Washington students.
During the week of Oct. 5, an e-mail alerted GW students about eight sexual assaults that had been reported in the area over the past two weeks.
"[The e-mail] didn't scare me. We've had them before," said GW freshman Stephanie Silvano. "I think my first thought after reading the e-mail was realizing that our biggest threat on campus is people."
She said that while she has always been cautious on campus, the e-mails made sexual assault a reality for her and reminded her to always be careful.
"The crime alert was primarily for educational purposes," said Tracy Schario, GW's director of media relations. "We try multiple avenues to educate students that unfortunately these things happen."
Not all the attacks happened on campus or in the tri-state area, and they dated as far back as 2006, according to Schario. GW officials e-mailed students to notify them of the dangers of sexual assaults, even though some of the attacks were not timely.
Schario did not have any information on whether the suspect in the AU area attacks was linked to the GW attacks.
AU Public Safety has worked to keep students safe from the suspect and other threats on campus, McNair said.
"We have joined forces with [the Metropolitan Police Department] to increase patrols off campus and provide more visibility," he said. "We have also sent out crime alerts and bulletins urging students to maintain safe practices and be aware of their surroundings, especially at night."
McNair said he witnessed no actual increase in crime this year, only an increase in the reporting of crime. Most of these crimes occurred off campus.
Elyse Eisenberg, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences, said e-mail crime alerts are not effective.
"I think it's good to know what's going on, but people tend not to read the e-mails," she said. "I remember people laughing at one of the alerts a few weeks ago. People don't really take them seriously."
Charles Wiseman, a freshman in the School of Public Affairs, said he found the crime alerts important, but not always relevant.
"I always read the e-mails, but because they don't usually pertain to campus, I usually don't take them too seriously," he said.
Students probably disregarded crime alerts because they felt safe on campus, Wiseman said.
"Unlike GW, we're kind of outside D.C. in a protected area, so I don't really fear any bad crime," he said. "If anything bad did happen, I'm sure public safety would be able to respond quickly because our campus is so small."
Eisenberg said she thinks AU's campus is safe.
"There are Public Safety officers everywhere and there is always a blue pole in view. I mean, I've never seen someone use [a blue pole], but I've never seen someone have to use it either," she said.
Both AU and GW recommend that students program their school's campus police phone number into their cell phones. The AU Public Safety emergency phone number is 202-885-3636 and its non-emergency number is 202-885-2527, according to Public Safety's Web site.
Public Safety encourages students to report any emergencies, potential criminal actions or suspicious activities so problems can be addressed and other students can be warned. Students can report crimes via regular telephones, emergency telephones throughout campus or in person at the Public Safety building or a patrol officer on campus, according to the department's Web site.
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