Students march on Wichita State campus police department in protest over reported dorm rape
More that 200 persons, most of them Wichita State University students, marched to the campus police station on Friday to protest what they say is mishandling of a reported rape in a campus dormitory.
The students gathered at Shocker Hall, the dorm where the sexual assault is alleged to have occurred about 3 a.m Sept 12. From there they marched — via a route approved in advance by the administration — to the campus police station where they demanded unsuccessfully that a police official come out and address their concerns.
The complaints were many and varied and touched on abuse of racial and transgender minorities on campus. But the running theme was that the protesters think police have taken the rape report too lightly and the protesters were angry that they only found out about it when it appeared in the campus newspaper, The Sunflower.
“In the article that we saw, they said that this is not an ongoing threat,” said Alondra Aguilera, a second-year junior who led the protest. “Obviously, having a rapist on the loose is a threat to our campus community. We also wanted justice for the victim because from what she told me personally, she was not helped in a proper way.”
Aguilera declined to provide specifics, but said police did not take the case seriously until after pressure was brought through social media and protesters started to organize.
Although the complainant and the accused have been named on Twitter, Eagle policy is to not publicly identify sex-crime victims without their permission, nor a person accused of a sex crime unless an arrest has been made.
Aguilera said protest organizers were offered a private meeting with campus police leadership, but declined that and counter-offered to let them speak at the demonstration.
Police Capt. Corey Herl declined an Eagle request for comment through an officer who was monitoring the protest, referring questions to an e-mail address at the university’s Strategic Communications department.
Chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, to jail the rapist has to go,” the students carried hand-lettered signs including “We deserve a rape-free campus,” “WSU, do better” and “Defund UPD.”
The campus police have a reputation for aggressively enforcing parking regulations on the parking-starved campus, but not much else, said student Lyndsy Hinman.
“Every time I drive around campus I see at least one or two police cars drive by me,” she said. “I want to know why we’re still not safe. What are our tuition dollars going for?”
She said one friend had gotten three parking tickets in the space of an hour.
“That’s what our money’s going toward, is parking tickets, rather than rape convictions or protecting people,” she said.
Student Rija Nazir said she was disgusted that news of the reported rape wasn’t sent out through Rave Guardian, a phone app that students are encouraged to download so they can keep in touch with someone when walking alone and receive emergency alerts affecting the campus.
“They didn’t consider it a bodily threat to our campus,” Nazir said. “If there is a rapist on the loose, I want to know now . . . not through a newspaper but through a Rave alert. It is a bodily threat and it is an emergency.”
WSU Dean of Students Andrew Austin watched the demonstration from a short distance away.
He said it would be inappropriate to comment on the case that brought the students out, but that the university supported their right to peacefully protest outside the police station.
“We encourage free speech on campus, this is what we’re about,” Austin said. “To me one of the pillars of higher education is the expression of ideas and to be able to share with us, so we support our students and their ability to do that.”
