University needs to inform students

I was shocked to read "Attempted abduction at CSULB" in the September 26th Daily Forty-Niner. Not only was I shocked to read about this campus crisis in the paper, I was even more disturbed to find that the CSULB didn't appear to be doing much about it in terms of educating students about what had taken place. The only notification I received regarding the attempted abduction was a result of what I saw on the front page of the Forty-Niner.

As a student and a human being, this upsets me. What if I were a student who only attended classes on Mondays and Wednesdays? Given that this campus is well known for its high commuter population, many students only attend classes twice a week. The reality of the situation is that those who don't attend Tuesday classes are probably don't know about the attempted abduction.

On-campus assault is not just a problem for the students and faculty at CSULB but it appears to be a growing problem on other nearby campuses as well. You may recall that a female student was raped at Cypress Community College in early September. One of the scariest factors is that the assault occurred in a campus parking lot at 11 a.m.   As I read the Forty-Niner article, I couldn't help but to think of the Cypress situation. The only difference between these incidents is that although both were tragic, the individual who encountered the attempted abduction at CSULB escaped, while the Cypress student did not.

With these two situations in mind, my question is this: Why wasn't this attempted abduction brought to the attention of the students? Had the Forty-Niner not covered the story, concerned students would never have known about it.

Unfortunately, there are a handful of students who don't read the Forty-Niner and that is no reason for them not to know about what happened. We can't let situations such as this be swept under the rug.  Perhaps the university was afraid that in creating awareness it would also be creating unnecessary discomfort and commotion among students and faculty.

Isn't discomfort and commotion what people need in order to stay alert? I'll be the first to admit, I'm fairly naive when it comes to being cautious of my surroundings. However, its articles such as the one in the Forty-Niner that send me back into the real world forcing me to wake up. It's forces such as those that keep me extra cautious ultimately preventing me from being assaulted.

Overall, I'm angry that CSULB is not taking this more seriously. All students and faculty should know about any type of rape or assault that occurs on campus. It doesn't seem to require much effort on the part of CSULB. The solution seems as simple as passing a memo onto professors letting students know to be extra cautious. That's all it takes.

I have yet to hear or see anything other than what was brought to my attention in the article. At least Cypress College distributed memos to students and openly discussed the details of the assault so that all students knew about what had occurred on campus. Why couldn't CSULB do the same? If it did, shame on my professors for not telling me.

Perhaps the university has done more than I am aware of.  However, if it has done more in terms of creating awareness of the attempted assault and I am still unaware of it, it has not done a very good job of creating that awareness.

Tiffany Stratton is a public relations major at CSULB.