The Department of Public Safety announced in two campus e-mails this month that two students reported being assaulted in off-campus bars in Bridgeport.
Director of Public Safety Todd Pelazza said he was not authorized to reveal the names of the alleged victims, who reported the incidents to un-named University staff members.
“We put [the announcements] out there for a variety of reasons, one, it keeps us in compliance with the Cleary laws, but more importantly, the goal is to keep the Fairfield University community members aware so that they can make informed decisions,” Pelazza said.
Two recent campus announcement e-mails from the Department of Public Safety have created a bit of a stir on campus. The first e-mail, sent on Feb. 7, informed students, in all capital letters: “An incident occurred at an off-campus nightclub in which a student was assaulted.”
“Please remember to exercise caution when going off campus,” the e-mail said. “Do not patronize establishments that serve minors or are otherwise not in compliance with the law. Avoid situations where you find yourself alone.”
The second announcement was sent on Feb. 21 and describes another incident, believed to be completely unrelated to the first. The e-mail repeated the message sent in the first announcement, but also said that the alleged attacker was a Caucasian male who “is approximately 5 foot 10 inches, heavy build with a thick goatee,” and “was wearing blue jeans and white thermal shirt.”
Neither e-mail revealed the name or location of the night clubs in question.
Some students questioned the announcements’ value.
“I didn’t even read them,” said Branden Garland ’08.
“I think the e-mails were vague and could have been more upsetting than they were helpful,” said Chrissy Young ’07. “I think it would be better if they could say where something happened, something about the circumstances, without jeopardizing the students identity.”
Pelazza said that he could not release specific information because the incidents were not reported to Public Safety directly by the students, but that the e-mails did incite valuable feedback.
According to Pelazza, a female student read the second announcement, which included a physical description of the suspected assaulter, and believes that the suspect may be in a picture that she took that night.
“We can’t act on it [the reports of the incidents] as far as an investigation, because it wasn’t reported to us,” said Pelazza. But the picture has been given to Public Safety and will be passed along to the Bridgeport Police Department.
In a phone interview, a spokesman for the Bridgeport Police Department said that the department did not have an ongoing investigation into the assaults, and that they had only been informed of the incidents by Public Safety on Monday, 19 days after the first incident, and five days after the second.
Fairfield Police Department spokesman Captain Gary MacNamara said their department was also unaware of the assaults but that they would be contacting the University for more information.
“Although we don’t enforce the laws in Bridgeport, we want [Fairfield] students to understand the risks of going into these situations,” he said.
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