FAYETTEVILLE — A female student reported Thursday she was raped at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, the fifth rape reported this semester and the third at a fraternity house.
The woman said the incident occurred between 11:55 p.m. Monday and 2:30 a.m. Tuesday, said Lt. Gary Crain, spokesman for the UA Police Department. She identified the attacker as a male student and an acquaintance.
Police have a rape kit on file from the incident, and they have started investigating, Crain said.
The number of UA-related rapes reported this semester tops the number of forcible sexual assaults reported for the entire year for four of the past five years, according to statistics provided through the Clery Act, a federal policy that requires colleges and universities to compile crime datafrom a variety of on- and off-campus sources.
There were seven such assaults in 2008, four in 2007 and 2004, three in 2006 and none in 2005, according to Clery Act reports posted on the UA Police Department’s Web site.
A 2005 study by the U.S. Department of Justice said that one in five women who attends college will be a victim of rape or attempted rape by the time she graduates, but just 5 percent will report the incident.
The subject of sexual assault has taken on a higher profile on campus in part because of an 18-year-old woman’s allegations that three Razorback basketball players raped her at an unregistered party Aug. 27 at the Phi Gamma Delta House.
The UA Office of Greek Life suspended all Inter-Fraternal council events for the semester in response to the incident and allegations of hazing at a new-member event at the Phi Delta Theta house Nov. 12.
The Washington County prosecutor did not press charges in the incident at the Phi Gamma Delta house, claiming a lack of consent could not be proven.
Prosecutor coordinator Bob McMahan appointed special prosecutor H.G. Foster to review the case after the woman’s attorney, John D. Bass, alleged Prosecuting Attorney John Threet had a conflict of interest in the case. Foster’s review continues.
Bass argued that Threet didn’t look closely enough at the case because his stepfather-in-law is former Athletic Director Frank Broyles.Also, Threet’s sister-in-law is married to Kevin Trainor, associate athletic director for media relations.
An anonymous woman reported the second of three alleged rapes at oncampus fraternity houses Nov. 1, refusing to identify herself or press charges, Crain said.
In another incident, a night custodian was fired after a female student claimed she awoke in her Humphreys Hall dorm room to find him raping her.
The fifth, not a studentrelated incident, involved two guests at the Inn at Carnall Hall, which is on campus, Crain said.
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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 12/12/2009