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Stanford University Department of Public Safety is investigating reports of three rapes on the campus over a three-week period in March, the department has confirmed in an email.
The incidents, on March 9, 25 and 27, were not related to one another and involved acquaintances of the three women who reported the attacks.
The March 9 incident occurred at Building A, Escondido Village Graduate Residence, between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. The victim, who reported the incident on March 10, is a 19-year-old Stanford female student who was allegedly raped by a 20-year-old male non-student. Police have completed their investigation and have submitted the case to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for review.
The second incident occurred at Crothers Memorial Hall, 621 Escondido Mall, between March 25 at 11:30 p.m. and March 26 at midnight. A 21-year-old female Stanford student reported the incident on March 29. The man under investigation is a 20-year-old male Stanford student.
A third incident took place at an unknown location on March 27 at 11:15 a.m. The female Stanford student, age 24, reported the incident on March 28. The man is a non-student who is 26 years old. This case is also under investigation, police said.
The Department of Public Safety has not issued a campus alert, known as a Timely Warning or AlertSU. Stanford police don’t automatically issue AlertSU warnings for sex offenses involving persons who are acquaintances, as were the students in each of these instances. The alerts are made on a case-by-case basis, the department said.
In 2019, a Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct of undergraduate and graduate students found that 40% of Stanford undergraduate women who have been at the university for four years experienced some form of nonconsensual sexual contact.
At the time, Provost Persis Drell called the report a “a chronic public health issue.”
In November 2020, Stanford released its annual Title IX report on campus sexual violence and harassment, which found the campus was headed toward its previous levels of sexual assault and harassment reports prior to the campus’ closure in March 2020 due to the pandemic.