IRVINE : UCI Rape Reported; First of the Year

A young woman visiting UC Irvine last week was attacked and raped as she was returning to her car, authorities said Thursday.

Police say it is the first campus rape reported this year. As a result, they plan to mail notices to the 4,500 students who live in campus housing, urging them to take precautions when walking alone at night. Because the fall school term ends today, the notices will be distributed when the students return for classes in January. Police already have issued notices to faculty and staff members.

But the student body president said she is upset that police didn’t immediately announce the attack, which the victim reported on Monday.

“A lot of students have been studying for finals late at night and have walked back (to their housing) in real remote areas,” said Susan Barnes, president of the Associated Students of UCI. “I think they should have notified people who could have done something.”

Michael Webster, UCI’s associate vice chancellor for administrative and business services, said it took until Wednesday to get the information gathered and the crime bulletins printed and put in the mail to people remaining on campus during the holiday break.

The victim, a county resident in her 20s, told police that the attack occurred on Nov. 28. She said she didn’t report it until Monday because she first sought counseling from the campus’s Women’s Resource Center.

The woman had been leaving the Biomedical Library. As she tried to enter her car, parked near the College of Medicine on the west side of the campus, she was attacked at knifepoint.

“She was fighting until she realized that the guy had a knife to her throat,” UCI Police Chief Mike Michell said.

The man was described as a white male with brown hair and wearing jeans, a denim jacket and pullover sweater, Michell said.

Campus security has been an issue at UCI for several months.

Last spring, Barnes ran for student body president on a platform demanding greater security against campus crime. Her demands followed an attempted rape of a student last December. The woman had been walking on a path that circles the campus when a man wielding a knife forced her into a first-floor men’s room in Steinhaus Hall, police said. The woman eventually broke free.

Another incident occurred in October, when a man walked into the rooms of two female students on campus and attempted to touch them, Michell said. The women had left their doors unlocked, he said.

The man, who turned himself in a few weeks later, was a student and has since left the university, he said.

After Barnes’ election, a university committee recommended a number of improvements in security. Since then, 12 special emergency phones have been placed throughout the campus to enable those in need to quickly summon help.

UCI also has been improving lighting on the campus for the past year, Webster said, and three additional officers are now in training for its 17-member police force. The campus escort service, in which student workers walk other students home late at night, has expanded its hours and soon will cover areas beyond campus boundaries.

Michell said violent crime has been much lower on the campus than elsewhere in Irvine. According to police records, 13 rapes or attempted rapes were reported in Irvine in 1988, while UCI only had the report of the attempted rape, Michell said.

“I honestly maintain that we have a safe environment,” he said.