Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9003232940
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
The men eventually were arrested and convicted, and one received the longest sentence in Montgomery County history - 145 years plus life.
After that, Virginia Tech police began devising programs to prevent such attacks on campus.
But not until James McComas became president two years ago did the police get the support - financial and otherwise - they needed for their programs.
Since then, Tech's Campus Watch and escort program has taken off.
"It's three or four miles from one end of campus to the other," Tech police Sgt. Jack Ridinger said. This is too far for a woman to walk alone, he said, "especially at night."
At Radford University, where there have been several reported rapes and attacks since the first of the year, university police have stepped up patrols around campus.
"It's not the kind of place girls should be walking alone at 3 a.m.," said Toby Phillips, Radford University's police director.
Tech's Campus Watch, which started as Dorm Watch in September 1988, is a group of students and employees who wander nightly through buildings and dormitories and around sidewalks, streets and parking lots on Tech's 600-acre main campus.
There are seven people who walk the campus each night and two others who drive a university car to escort students. Most of them are full-time employees, some are students who work part time and a couple are students who volunteer a few hours a week.
Armed only with a two-way radio, the seven-member walking crew reports to headquarters any suspicious person or anything odd they see during their shifts, which last from 8 at night until 4 in the morning.
One of the bigger parts of their $5.27-an-hour job is escorting students, primarily women, around campus.
"Some nights we get over 150 calls," said Chris Keister, who takes the calls and dispatches Campus Watch escorts by CB radio. "Ninety-nine percent of them are [from] females."
"It's great," Dean of Students Beverly Sgro said. "I remember having to beg people to use it."
Most nights, there are seven Campus Watch foot patrols whose members wear tan uniforms and purple caps. Two others ride in the escort car for long-distance escorts.
There also are four or five regular officers on duty through the night who take over the escorting after 2 a.m.
Tech Police Chief Mike Jones said the number of attacks has decreased since Campus Watch began. Also helping are new lights in remote areas of campus, Jones said, some of which were funded by the McComas administration with its "spend now rather than pay later" attitude.
"We don't have a big dome over the place. Things can happen," Jones said. "And these programs are supposed to help us be offensive more than defensive."
Tech student Dave Lawhon, 20, who volunteers at least once a week to drive the escort car, said most women call for rides to their cars parked in sprawling lots in remote parts of campus.
For Johanna Bond, an 18-year-old freshman from Richmond, a call for an escort is a once or twice nightly routine.
"It's just safer," said Bond, standing in a light drizzle beside her car after being dropped off by an escort. She was on her way home from her boyfriend's dorm.
On the other hand, there is Carmen Alvarez, 29, who is living near the Tech campus while doing research on a grant from the health and psychology departments.
"I walk any time I feel like it and a lot of times it's late at night," Alvarez said.
On a recent Friday night, she walked along a dimly lit road near Tech's Duck Pond listening to Boy George on a Walkman on her way to the racquetball courts.
"I'm never nervous because I enjoy walking," said Alvarez, who also jogs at night. "It's too enjoyable to be nervous."
The previous day, as Ridinger drove his patrol car past the Duck Pond, he recalled that a student was raped there late one night a few years ago. He said female students must take precautions.
"We've got a lot of brave students here. We get a lot of them that jog through this area right here," Ridinger said, pointing to dark section of road near the pond. "Can you imagine a female jogging through here at 2 or 3 at night?"
Another Tech student, walking late one night around the edge of the Duck Pond, said she rarely walks without a few friends, unless she feels like being alone.
"I make it a point to go around with other people," said the senior, who asked that her name not be used. "It's just a logical thing that my parents have instilled in me. It's just something to watch out for."
Tech also has about 20 "blue light" telephones near remote buildings and parking lots that patch directly to police headquarters when 888 is dialed. Jones has asked the administration this year for 55 more. A decision is pending.
Tech and Radford students have been warned by school officials to take precautions and walk in pairs. But on recent nights on the campuses, many students were seen walking, jogging and riding bikes alone.
Radford's Kappa Delta Rho fraternity now provides an escort service, but the hours are limited.
"They've recently expressed an interest in increasing the hours," said Phillips, whose police also will escort students if asked.
On the other hand, some women prefer to fend for themselves.
In Blacksburg, karate expert and teacher Ed Hampton said a third of the people in his classes are female students and professors from Tech.
Not many of them say they come to his classes because they are afraid of rape, he said, but some have used maneuvers learned in his class to prevent an attack.
"Or, for some, their boyfriend's got drunk and they had to put him in a wrist lock," Hampton said.
But whether women choose to go it alone or use the escort service, Sgt. Ridinger said female students should accept the fact that there are dangers on Tech's campus.
"Blacksburg has changed a lot in the past few years," said Ridinger, a Blacksburg native.
SIDEBAR: GOOD ENVIRONMENT FOR ASSAULT? WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTER, DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SERVICES AND VIRGINIA STATE CRIME COMMISSION INFORMATION CONCLUDES:
That colleges and universities, by their nature and design, have environments that favor sexual assaults.
That student rape is more likely to occur on a date than in a dark alley.
That most women will answer "no" when asked if they have ever been raped. However, a significant number of the same women will say "yes" when asked, "Have you ever been forced to have sex against your will?"
That one out of four women in college has been the victim of rape or attempted rape, and more than 90 percent of them knew their assailant.
That rape is rarely sexually motivated. The primary motivations are power, control and hostility.
That most sexual assaults are planned, many occuring in the victim's home.
\ SIDEBAR:
\ THE NUMBERS ON RAPE A KENT STATE UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR SURVEYED 6,000 STUDENTS ABOUT RAPE. HERE'S WHAT HE LEARNED:
25 percent of the women had been victims of rape or attempted rape.
38 percent of the women who had been raped were 14 to 17 years old at the time.
84 percent knew their attackers.
57 percent of reported rapes happened on dates.
27 percent of the women whose sexual assault met the legal definitions of rape considered themselves rape victims.
8.3 percent of the men had committed acts that met the legal definition of rape or attempted rape. 84 percent of them said they didn't consider it rape.
75 percent of the men and 55 percent of the women involved in acquaintance rapes had been drinking or taking drugs.
16 percent of the males who committed rape and 10 percent who attempted rape participated with other attackers.
41 percent of rape victims said they expected to be raped again.
30 percent of the rape victims later contemplated suicide.
42 percent of rape victims said they later voluntarily had sex with the man who had assaulted them.
55 percent of the rapists said they later had sex with the same woman.i
47 percent of the rape victims told no one about it.
31 percent of the victims sought psychotherapy.
22 percent took self-defense classes.
5 percent sought help at rape crisis centers.
5 percent reported the rape to the police.
82 percent said the experience had changed their lives permanently.
Memo: sidebars with survey statistics