Editor’s note: Starting Tuesday and continuing on Wednesday, The Daily Illini will be examining public safety on campus — specifically, the effectiveness and use of safety whistles, or “rape whistles.”

Amira Al-Basha, senior in LAS, said she used to carry a safety whistle, or “rape whistle,” with her but took it off her key chain because her friends would playfully blow it while out at campus bars.

“I got embarrassed of people taking it away from me and blowing it, so I put it away,” Al-Basha said. “It’s not a serious thing, just something people joke about.”

“Rape whistle” has become a campus buzzword. Their distribution among freshmen has become a University tradition, much like coupons passed out on Quad Day or free T-shirts at Convocation.

However, police records show that whistle use on campus is minimal and that the majority of students could not distinguish the sound of a “rape whistle” from another type.

But to those working to ensure student safety, the whistles are not a laughing matter — even if they are rarely used for serious situations.

“Keeping a whistle handy to draw attention to yourself or to scare someone away is a good tool to have,” said Deputy Chief of University Police Jeff Christensen. “But the main thing is to remove yourself from a situation where an opportunity can arise.”

Christensen said in his 25 years on campus he remembers being called to only one or two incidents in which a whistle was blown.

Because sexual assault records are based on victim documentation, he said rape is a “highly under-reported crime, and we probably only have seen the tip of the iceberg.”

According to the 2008-2009 Champaign police report, sexual assault and battery made up 2 percent of the year’s reported incidents. And while many campus residents have become accustomed to calling them “rape whistles,” their use is not limited to preventing such attacks, said Jennifer Scott, sexual assault education coordinator at the Women’s Resource Center.

“They’re marketed as ‘safety whistles,’” said Scott, whose organization purchased and distributed the whistles before the initiative was overtaken by the Office of the Dean of Students. “The intent was that it could be used by either a person who needs help or by a bystander witnessing something occur. There are a whole host of dangerous occurrences, of which sexual assault is just one piece.”

While the whistles are said to be available to students of both sexes, they are presented only to female freshmen by a resident advisor in University or Private Certified Housing. Male students must request a whistle in order to obtain one, Scott said. It is unclear whether or not transfer students often receive safety whistles, since many choose to live in apartments or off-campus.

Brad Dunajcik, graduate student, said he agrees it is unsafe to walk around campus for both men and women, “especially with all the crime alerts,” but that the crimes do not appear to be sexual in nature.

“It seems like most people just get beat up and have their money taken,” he said.

Current statistics used in both First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education, or FYCARE, and Rape Aggression Defense classes, or RAD, report that one in four women will be sexually assaulted while attending college and one of eight will be raped.

Such serious numbers bring to question whether students would act upon the sounding of a whistle. Matt Kawalek, freshman in DGS, said he has never heard one.

“If I heard one, I might glaze over,” Kawalek said. “If it’s late at night, I’d probably notice (the noise).”