On Friday morning, a Campus Safety Notice was sent to University students and staff alerting them of a recent sexual assault.

The email stated that the assault took place early that morning in a fraternity house and did not provide further information regarding the location or those involved.

Alice Cary, the University of Illinois Police Department police chief, explained that UIPD’s reason for not providing specific details in cases of sexual misconduct is to protect survivors against potential retaliation.

According to Pat Wade, spokesperson for UIPD, the name of the specific fraternity house is not disclosed unless there’s a pattern of similar crimes stemming from it. 

“If you look at our previous notices, we employ this same practice when sexual assaults are reported in University Housing,” Wade said. “We’ll say it happened ‘in a residence hall,’ but generally not the specific residence hall. Again, this is to avoid a situation where people who know the survivor can start piecing together information to figure out who was involved.”

Wade said the notice was distributed to over 90,000 students, staff and community members, and that their priority is the survivor’s safety when it comes to disclosing information.

[email protected]