New students received a “timely warning” email later than the rest of the University community, the majority of whom received the email on the morning of Aug. 20.
“The University initiated a review of the email system that distributes the timely warnings later in the day when the first warning was distributed,” University spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn said in an email statement to The Cavalier Daily. “The review confirmed that new students did not receive the initial message. The timely warning was then distributed to all students.”
The email disclosed a report made to Charlottesville Police in which a female University student said she was sexually assaulted by an unknown male armed with a knife between 12:01 and 1:07 a.m. on Emmet Street, near Thomson Road, on Aug. 20.
The original email was sent to the University community around 6 a.m., but new students did not receive the email until later that day. Many had learned of the assault from other students.
Anna Shaw, a first-year College student, said her resident adviser made her aware of the incident.
“My RA told me about it, and then I got the email,” Shaw said. “My RA heard about it before I did.”
Gabby Garvey and Joyce Cheng, both first-year College students, said they received the emails from the University at 10:39 p.m.
“I had heard about it earlier on that day,” Garvey said.
In accordance with the Jeanne Clery Act of 1990, the University is required to send out “Timely Alerts” to the university community when a crime has already been committed, but still poses a serious or continuous threat.
The Clery Act also requires the University to annually report crimes including homicide, sex offenses, robbery, assault, hate crimes and domestic violence which occur in locations on campus, public property within or immediately adjacent to campus and on property the University controls.
The University currently uses the Just Report It system, which is an online form where members of the University community can anonymously report incidents of bias, hazing or sexual or gender-based violence.
After receiving an initial report, the Title IX coordinator and other University officials, including the assistant vice president for Clery compliance, must decide to release a timely warning.
The University periodically tests the email notification system, de Bruyn said.
“The process for adding new students has been adjusted to prevent this from reoccurring in the future,” he said.
Charlottesville Police are still searching for a suspect in the assault, who is described as a 20- to 30-year-old white male with light colored hair.
Police are also hoping to get in contact with people who helped the victim that night and took her home. Anyone who was in the area between 11:30 p.m. on Aug. 19 and 1:00 a.m. on Aug. 20 and helped the victim or noticed suspicious activity was asked to contact police.
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