In the second major campus-related attack this school year, a female Northwestern student was sexually assaulted while walking home at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.
The student was in the area of Emerson Street and Maple Avenue near Engelhart Hall when a man sitting on the grass by the building flagged her down and asked if she “had any stuff for him,” said Lt. Joseph Bellino of the Evanston Police Department.
When the student declined and kept walking, the man grabbed her from behind and attempted to drag her into a dark area behind the building, Bellino said.
The man then reached for the student’s purse and groped her buttocks, Bellino said.
He then fled eastbound on Emerson when the victim spotted an EPD police car and yelled for help, Bellino added.
University Police officers later assisted EPD in searching for the man, said Lt. Nick Parashis of UP. Both departments are still looking for the man.
The student described her assailant as a 6-foot-2-inch black male in his late 20s weighing about 190 pounds, with a high-pitched voice, Bellino said. He last was seen wearing baggy pants and a three-quarter-length black leather coat.
UP and several university officials sent students e-mails Thursday afternoon, with news of the attack and safety tips aimed at preventing similar incidents. Fliers with the man’s description also went up around campus.
Parashis recommended that students walk in groups, stay on well-lit main streets or use the Student Escort Service.
“(After a party) somebody escort the young ladies home,” Parashis said.
Many students complain of long waits for an escort. Students who called for rides Wednesday morning said there was an hourlong wait at about 1 a.m.
“(A long wait) is not uncommon at all,” said Sara Nelson, the student coordinator of the escort service.
She said this quarter the service has averaged 100 escorts a night with three cars; drivers provided 92 rides between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
The service usually is busiest between 9 p.m. and midnight, when wait times average 30 to 45 minutes, Nelson said. From midnight to 2:30 a.m waits last about 15 or 20 minutes, she said.
Nelson said she expects the escort service to be busier for the next few days.
After a jogger was assaulted while running on the Lakefill last October, the number of escorts a night jumped 10 percent, she said.
Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) expressed dismay about the assault at Thursday’s Associated Student Government Senate meeting, and again touched on the issue of student safety on the streets.
“Whenever anything like that happens, it’s horrible,” Newman said. “We’re going to be working on lighting – that’s long-term. We have as many police officers as we can get.”
