A recent assault at the University of Virginia has brought a response from many in the Virginia Tech community.
A UVa student, along with a guest, were assaulted at approximately 3 a.m. Saturday, April 4, by a group of five males. The assailants before and during the incident uttered several homophobic slurs and broke the UVa student's phone when he attempted to call 911. Police were notified when the student's guest was able to flee the scene.
The university said in a statement from Alan Grove, associate vice president and dean of students, that the attack was motivated by the perceived sexual orientation of the two victims.
Grove spoke firmly on the incident.
"Any crime perpetrated on a university student is one too many," Grove said in the statement. "There is no place for crimes of hate at the university or in the surrounding Charlottesville community."
Edward Warwick, program coordinator for UVa's Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Alliance Resource Center, said that the event unified the student body. The university held events Thursday in response to the incident.
"With the time of year for students, even though they're very busy, they recognized this is something we don't tolerate," Warwick said.
Warwick added that safety was important in a university setting.
"Everybody should feel like they're safe," Warwick said. "You should feel comfortable to hold the hand of your partner walking down the street, regardless of your gender, your sexuality, your race or your ethnicity."
It has not been determined whether the attackers were students at UVa. An investigation from the university's police department on the incident is ongoing. Students of Tech's LGBTA prepared a card to be given to UVa's LGBT Resource Center. Emily Mauger, president of Tech's LGBTA said that the events were very disturbing.
"It's horrible," Mauger said. "It's sad to realize it's such a problem for acceptance." Mauger added that the incident could be important to foster future discussion at Tech.
"It kind of takes an event like the one at UVa for people to talk about it," Mauger said.
Both UVa and Tech Clery Act statistics show a limited number of incidents referred to as hate crimes. UVa has had three hate crime incidents from 2005 to 2007. However, all were connected to race, not sexual orientation. Tech's statistics show no hate crimes during the same period. However, Mauger said the numbers could be misleading.
"There are definitely hate crimes on this campus," Mauger said. Tech Dean of Students Tom Brown noted that students could anonymously report incidents through the university's SafeWatch program. Brown said administrators kept close watch on incoming reports.
"It's important so that university administrators have a sense of what students are facing here," Brown said. "It's something we want to know about." Brown added that the university considered it important to make students feel welcome.
"We want to support students who may have a negative experience here," Brown said.