Student, 18, Is Raped in Restroom at UCI : Crime: The 11 a.m. attack is the first known incident this year at the campus, officials say.

An 18-year-old student leaving a UC Irvine restroom was pushed back inside and raped, school officials said Friday.

This year’s first known rape at the campus happened about 11 a.m. Thursday in the first floor bathroom of the Physical Sciences Classroom Building, university spokeswoman Karen Newell Young said.

The victim reported she had changed clothes and was trying to leave the restroom when a man wearing a black ski mask with eye holes, black clothing and surgical gloves blocked her way, Young said.

The assailant motioned with his hand in his pocket as if he had a gun, ordered the victim to remove her clothes, then raped her on the floor of the restroom, the spokeswoman said.

After the attacker left, the woman drove home, where her family called campus police about 6 p.m., Young said. There are no suspects.

Crime alert bulletins were posted throughout the university Friday to inform students and faculty of this week’s assault. Young said UCI has had one reported rape in each of the last several years.

The recent rape will be discussed at the third annual Southern California Women’s Studies Conference, to be held May 1 at UCI, campus officials said.

The convention already has a workshop scheduled to deal with rape, “but now it has an added timeliness and significance,” Young said.

Paula Goldsmid, director of the Women’s Resource Center at UCI, said the daylight attack at a well-traveled area of the campus was “very unusual. Most rapes are not of this kind. In most cases people are acquainted with the ones who rape them.” But she added: “It can happen anywhere, anytime.”

Women’s center counselors advised students to be constantly aware of their surroundings and to be prepared to defend themselves. The center also offers self-defense classes, Goldsmid said.