After a series of six assaults — presumably committed by either one or two suspects — made national headlines this July, the University’s Office of Public Affairs has made the recent incidents near campus its primary concern, and have developed a website that compiles information about the attacks from various news sources.
According to University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald, because information about the individual assaults is often “scattered” on the Internet, the University designed the website to specifically inform the campus community about the assaults by providing it with up-to-date information from several sources.
The new site — www.vpcomm.umich.edu/issues/safety.html — draws information from press releases from the University’s Department of Public Safety, Ann Arbor Police Department as well as coverage from local and national news sources, Fitzgerald explained.
“There’ll be stories in one newspaper or another, an op-ed in the Daily, a story in the Record update, an e-mail to faculty and staff,” Fitzgerald said. “Because those things are so diverse, we think there’s value in pulling them together.”
DPS spokeswoman Diane Brown said she hopes the website will provide accurate and accessible information to concerned citizens, especially parents of current and incoming students. She added the website allows her to direct callers to information that will help clear up misconceptions and ease their concerns surrounding the issue.
Brown stressed that the issues that garnered the most media coverage occurred in over a short period of time from July 15 to 26, and that there haven’t been any similar reports since July 26.
“There was an eleven day period and in fact most happened over the course of one weekend,” she said.
As of now, there have been no arrests in connection to the assaults, according to Brown, though AAPD has received more than 600 tips.