Campus administrators sent out a university-wide timely warning and safety advisory Wednesday, Feb. 5, alerting students and faculty to a “sexual assault that may have occurred in the Rait, Tolman and Walnut Ridge vicinity.”

According to the timely warning and safety advisory, “The University has reason to believe that the reported incident involved heavy alcohol use, possible drug use, and invited non-student guest(s).”

“Students and non-students were involved, that’s about as much detail as I can give,” Danny Sandoval, Director of Student Diversity, Advocacy and Health said Friday at an informational session aimed at educating students about sexual assault and how to respond.

Sandoval also stated that campus investigators and the Grand Junction Police Department have identified the alleged perpetrators, but according to Kate Porras, Public Information Coordinator for Grand Junction Police Department, “no one has been arrested, but we’re still investigating.”

Details on how the incident was brought to the attention of campus authorities and law enforcement, and in which dorm specifically the assault occurred, also have not been disclosed in the interest of “protecting the privacy of the survivor,” Vice President of Student Services, John Marshall, said.

Marshall did indicate, however, that extra security measures have been taken in the Rait, Tolman and Walnut Ridge dorms, as well as all other dorms on campus.

“Some of that is going to be university officials having a little more of a presence in different places at different times,” Marshall said. “That’s everything from RAs being aware of and paying close attention to what’s happening in the halls, that’s police presence. We already have police presence but the question is, ‘What shifts are we doing?’ ‘How do we adjust shifts?’ ‘How do we adjust where they’re patrolling?’ We’re going to make a series of adjustments to make sure we’re really paying close attention.”

Policies regarding non-student visitors have also tightened for now, according to Director of Housing Troy Seppelt.

“As part of our concern for our community, we have at least for the time being changed limitations on non-student guests in the [Rait, Tolman and Walnut Ridge] buildings until we can get our hands around what’s happening and what’s not happening,” Seppelt said.

As per the Crime Awareness and Campus Security Act of 1990 (now known as the Jeanne Clery Act), CMU must disclose information about any and all crime on and around campus. According to the main campus’ 2013 Clery Security/Fire Security Report, a timely warning such as that sent out via email Wednesday must be issued when there is a “condition or incident that could compromise the safety and well-being of any member of the Colorado Mesa University community.”

“At this time, we don’t have any reason to believe there’s any major threat out there,” Sandoval said. “For the most part, the threat has been contained to the best of our ability, but we felt it was important to send out the warning to make the campus aware of what was going on.”

Students who have questions or concerns or who wish to report a sexual assault can do so anonymously through SART, the on-campus Sexual Assault Response Team, at 970-270-5895.

cblackme@mavs.coloradomesa.edu