A St. Thomas student told a campus security authority April 7 that she was sexually assaulted in Flynn Hall, according to a recent Public Safety alert.

The alert said the woman was sexually assaulted in her room by an acquaintance sometime on or before Dec. 13, 2010, but in accordance with university policy and federal law, and at the request of the woman, no additional information about the reported crime is available.

Michael Barrett, Public Safety associate director, said Public Safety can’t release details about the incident, but he added, “It isn’t that we don’t want to. We have to balance the rights of the victim and rights of the community.”

He said female undergraduate students have a high probability of being sexually assaulted sometime during their college years, usually by someone they know, as happened in this case.

“Quite a few cases are never reported,” he added.

The alert also said that “because the perpetrator is unknown to Public Safety, it can be assumed that conditions continue to exist that may pose a threat to members and guests of the [St. Thomas] community.”

Barrett said this is the first on-campus sexual assault reported since 2007, but there have been sexual assaults reported off-campus during the past few years. According to the 2010 Campus Security Act Report, the most recent report available, there were six on-campus forcible sexual offenses reported in 2007 and none in 2008 or 2009.

April is national Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and Barrett said there is a “pretty good chance” this could have played a role in the female student’s decision to report the assault now, four months after it occurred.

“The campus community is talking about sexual assault, and it’s very likely that there are many women paying attention now versus a couple weeks or months ago,” he said.

Katie Broadwell can be reached at klbroadwell@stthomas.edu.