Some Digman residents said they were unaware of the alleged rape attempt in their dorm over the weekend until they read the campus newspaper or attended a neighboring hall’s social event where students were shown how to protect themselves from sexual assaults.

Lyndsay, a Digman resident who did not want to give her last name, said she learned about the sex-assault allegations when she accompanied her friend to a Whitney Hall “cookies-and-milk social” where a University police lieutenant spoke about the threat of sexual assault.

“She said, ‘I’m sure you’ve all heard about the rape and this is what you can do to prevent it’,” the freshman said.

Freshman Crystal Antoine, who attended the social, said organizers inconspicuously slipped jelly beans into a few students’ drinks to demonstrate how easy it can be to be the victim of a date rapist.

“At the end they said, ‘OK, you three with jelly beans in your drink, you could have been date-raped’,” she said.

Whitney’s resident director, Kimberly Martinez, said many programs are run by the hall staff, but she would not confirm that a program on sexual assault took place on Tuesday night.

Other Digman and neighboring Rafuse Hall residents said they knew of the allegation only from Pipe Dream’s Tuesday cover story.

“I heard a few students talking about it but I have not been told anything by the RA,” said a junior Digman resident who would not give her name.

One Digman resident, Nyeesha Daniel, found out about the incident only when approached by a reporter on Wednesday night.

“I’m very surprised,” the freshman said. “I really did not expect that.”

Neither the campus police nor Dickinson dorm staff would comment on the victim’s condition or her status at the University.

The student charged with attacking the Digman student, William Marulanda Jr., remains in Broome County Jail, and Milton Chester, director of BU’s Judicial Affairs office, said his staff would continue to be involved.

“We will be looking into that matter,” Chester said.

Rodger Summers, vice president for student affairs, said his division would respond to the incident by examining how to improve student safety.

“Any time we have any kind of incident, be it sexual or larceny, there is always the question asked ‘what could we do better?’ or ‘what do we have to change?’ I’m sure this incident will be looked at the same way in terms of what we can do,” Summers said.

While only a handful of sexual assault cases are reported each year at BU, Summers said, the incident in Digman Hall wouldn’t be played down as insignificant.

“Even one is too many,” he said.

Campus culture

Across New York State, universities have been overwhelmed by the problem of sexual assaults, with women having a 1 in 3.5 chance of being sexually assaulted while at college, according to a 2000 report by the federal Justice Department.

Carrie Fleider, a sexual assault counselor at BU, said the high rate of these assaults among college women is more a factor of age than the particularities of campus culture.

She said the 18 to 24 age group has a very high victimization rate for sexual violence, both on and off campus.

“Binghamton, like any other campus, is a microcosm of what is happening across the country,” Fleider said. “Historically, people this age feel invulnerable … they think they are young and they have a lot going for them and they don’t necessarily see there are a lot of dangers out there.”

Commenting on sexual assault in general, not the recent incident in Digman, Vice President Summers said no amount of precautionary measures taken by the University can substitute for students being “street smart” and taking personal responsibility for their safety.

Several female students interviewed concurred.

“I don’t want to say everyone should go and take a self-defense class or anything, but if you can’t protect yourself, you should do something about it,” said senior biology major Jessica Condello.

Even if women want to protect themselves, they feel pressure to fit in, said student Misty Ondrusek.

“I think women let their guard down when they go to parties and go out socializing when trying to establish themselves in a new place,” said Ondrusek, a senior biology major.

Victim blaming?

But Fleider, the University’s sexual assault counselor, said no amount of precaution can guarantee a woman will be safe from rape.

“Regardless of whether a woman does all the things people talk about in terms of risk reduction, she may still get raped,” Fleider said. “It is not the responsibility of a woman not to get raped. It is the responsibility of our culture to teach personal responsibility and to understand issues about consent and what is appropriate sexual behavior.”

Victim blaming and difficult evidentiary and reporting procedures can deter victims from reporting sexual assault, Fleider said, which can contribute to the low rate at which victims report the crimes.

“I’m sort of amazed that anyone reports,” Fleider said.

Fleider’s position is paid for by a recent federal Justice Department grant to educate students about appropriate sexual behavior and to standardize how sexual assault is reported.

Even before the grant, the Student Affairs division produced two DVDs that seek to debunk myths about sexual assault. The programs have been shown to new students at freshman orientation.

The most recent edition of the DVD is aimed at educating men.

“Men are often left out of these types of discussions,” Summers said, “when they are the ones who really need to be more involved.”