Notre Dame investigates rape, attempted charges
10/4/2013SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Police at the University of Notre Dame are investigating a report of a rape and an attempted rape in September and have informed the prosecutor’s office that two other women who reported being raped last month are unwilling to pursue criminal charges.
“With our efforts to increase awareness of what constitutes sexual violence and how to report it, we anticipated and are seeing a rise in the number of reports,” university spokesman Dennis Brown told the South Bend Tribune (http://bit.ly/19ZiTF4 ).
The U.S. Department of Education in April 2011 outlined to colleges nationwide their responsibilities in confronting sexual assaults.
Brown said the other two cases remain under investigation. The university had eight reports of rapes in total for the three previous years combined.
Monica Daegele, a junior and director of gender issues for the Notre Dame student body government, and other student government leaders gathered to discuss what could be done to bring student attention to the problem.
“We said that clearly there’s something going on, and we need to start something to get the students talking about it,” Daegele said.