College Sexual Assault Statistics 2017: Date Rape Drug Use Reported At Northwestern University Fraternity

University_Hall_Northwestern — Northwestern University notified its students about reports of sexual assaults last week and possible date rape drugs given at fraternity houses. This photo shows the University Hall. Madcoverboy

Northwestern University said Monday that their Sexual Harassment Prevention Office had received a report last week stating that a date rape drug was used at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity on Jan. 21 and the drug was given to four female students out of which two also alleged that they were sexually assaulted at the fraternity.

Interfraternity Council (IFC) president Rodney Orr said that IFC was working with the University in response to allegations of sexual assault. "We are working with the University just to ensure that all of the facts are in order and to make sure that everyone involved sort of gets the chance to have their voices heard," he said.

Chief of Police, Bruce Lewis said that the University had also received an anonymous report Friday that talked of an alleged sexual assault case of a female student with the use of a date drug after attending an event at an unnamed fraternity house the previous night.

Lewis said the Sexual Harassment Prevention Office has been investigating these reports.

About 100 universities and colleges had reported at least 10 accounts of rape on their main campuses in 2014, according to federal campus safety data, where Brown University and the University of Connecticut tied for the highest annual total of 43 each.

Numerous studies performed earlier have found that men who join fraternities are three times more likely to rape than others and women who are a part of sororities are 74 percent more likely to experience rape than other college women, and that one among five women will be sexually assaulted in the four years they are studying at school.

In October last year, sexual assaults of two female students were reported at University of California and they took place at the Berkeley off-campus fraternity houses over the weekend. According to Berkeley police, both the victims specified that the assaults took place at social events in fraternity houses.

There was another instance last week when a student who had accused her professor of raping her in 2015 in a former University of California, Santa Cruz, has been awarded $1.5 million to settle her claim. The university had previously neglected her claim, despite knowing that the professor had a history of pursuing his students.