Students gathered in the quad of Cal State Fullerton’s campus on Wednesday to protest the university’s response to a sexual assault on campus reported on Sept. 30.
The protest took place in front of the Pollak Library, where students held signs depicting what they perceived as a limited response from the university.
“Honestly, it was just very shocking to hear that it (the sexual assault) happened at all, so I waited to see what would come of it, ‘cause they just said that it happened. And then when they finally sent out a second post, I thought it would be something relieving, ” said second-year transfer and studio arts major Maude Smith. “But then it just felt like ‘we caught this guy, we investigated him,’ and they don’t tell us anything about it.”
Participants started at the south wing of the library and intermittently circled the campus, walking up toward Titan Walk and near the visual arts buildings before returning to the library.
On Sept. 30,the Cal State Fullerton Police Department had sent a campus-wide alert via email, cautioning students about an incident of sexual assault that took place in campus housing.
In a follow-up email sent on Oct. 1, CSUF PD stated that they had identified and located the suspect and that there was no ongoing threat that the suspect posed to the campus community.
CSUF PD stated that, because the investigation is ongoing, they would not be able to release the suspect’s identity or confirm whether he was a student. Similarly, no criminal or administrative charges are pending while the investigation is in its early stages.
Responses to the update were varied, with some students taking issue with the university’s statement that the suspect posed no threat to campus.
While the event flyer, titled “Is our school keeping us safe?” questioned the presence of Flock cameras around campus, most eventgoers were at the event in conjunction with the recent report of the on-campus sexual assault.
Chants of “We are Jane Doe” and “The CSU don’t care about you” filled the quad and connected student concerns at the event to the national story of rape allegations coming out of Cornell University.
Third-year mechanical engineering major Gavin Hoganson, an onlooker at the event, spoke about how speaking with event organizers helped contextualize their concerns, and also stated that with the ongoing nature of the investigation, the campus may still be formulating a response to the assault.
“It sounds like they’re looking for a more public response,” Hoganson said. “I can see that frustration, but the system is also slow these days so I think they’ll get what they’re looking for given time.”
Aside from concerns about the case of reported sexual assault on campus, some eventgoers stated a general concern about safety in campus housing.
“Honestly, there are a lot of people who don’t live on campus who’ve been able to get into the dorms,” said first-year psychology major Olive Yost. “I live in the dorms myself and it’s been honestly really terrifying the amount of people who are in the building who do not go here, who are grown adults knocking on people’s doors for room tours or videos or what have you.”
This protest came a day before national campus protests planned for Oct. 8 platform in the same frustrations and concerns following the rape allegations out of Cornell.