The student, identified only as Jane Doe in court papers, has now filed a lawsuit against Belmont University claiming that “insufficient security measures contributed to the assault and that the school downplayed the violent incident in the aftermath,” according to the Nashville City Paper.

At the time of the incident, ID card-activated gates had been removed from the Bruin Hills complex, this is one of several security issues cited in the lawsuit. Director of campus security Terry White told the Belmont Vision in January that the decision came partly because the money typically used for maintenance could be “better utilized to buy cameras and other crime prevention devices.”

The claim filed in Davidson County  Circuit Court also charges that Belmont “sent e-mail announcements to its students intentionally misrepresenting the nature and extent of the incident so as to minimize the perception of harm and/or danger to its students.”

White, in his statement to the  Vision just weeks after the incident was reported, acknowledged the change in wording over the course of several days and attributed it to the effort to “get information out as quickly as possible” while not startling anyone unnecessarily or “putting out information that would be erroneous.”

The law also recognizes that Belmont must take “reasonable steps to maintain the safety” of its students, staff and faculty.

The university can make sure locks work, campus security is trained and the emergency notification system functions, but inevitably, Rogers pointed out, the university cannot keep the campus of more than 5,000 crime-free.

On the morning of Dec. 5, e-mails and texts went out warning students of “an intrusion and assault” in the Bruin Hills apartment complex. It would be three more days before students were notified of more details about the seriousness of the crime, and even now, nearly six weeks later, little information is available through official channels.

When an incident occurs on campus, there’s a specific protocol for handling the situation, Director of Campus Security Terry White explained.

If someone places a call to campus security, the officers on duty respond first and are in charge of contacting Metro Police, not just to involve them, but also to check the surrounding area depending on the situation.

White is notified and in turn contacts Rogers. Both work with the Dean of Students as well as campus communications.

On the morning of Dec. 5, all were on campus by 6 a.m., White said, and set to work in part, deciding how to “alert people to the fact we’ve had an incident” in terms of method of communication and wording.

He described an effort to “get information out as quickly as possible” while not startling anyone unnecessarily or “putting out information that would be erroneous.”

On Dec. 8, the wording changed.  The announcement was updated to an “attempted sexual assault.” According to White, second notification came because they did not have much information initially. Meanwhile, stories of the incident – with various levels of severity –  spread among students.  Belmont’s statements have confirmed only the “attempted” incident as described Dec. 8.

Though details are restricted, White did say, “There’s not been an arrest made as of yet.”
Metro Police spokesman Don Aaron said the crime report, ultimately a public record, is not yet available to the media because of the ongoing investigation.

Since the incident, senior leadership decided to put the 15th Avenue gates back up. While it comes as a direct result of the assault, White said that incident did not happen because the gates were down.

Rather, reinstalling the gates, along with the addition of security cameras, will better aid in keeping a record of who passes through them. A pedestrian gate is also being put in between 15th Avenue and the Thraillkill parking garage.

The gates were originally installed in the 1990s when Belmont acquired the Bruin Hills apartments. The apartments were on the edge of campus at the time, but the construction of both Thrailkill and the Hillside apartments brought more traffic to the area.

At one point the gates were only closed at night and eventually weren’t closed at all, up to their removal in the fall of 2008.

“They weren’t serving the purpose they were designed to serve,” White said.

The decision came partly because the money typically used for maintenance could be “better utilized to buy cameras and other crime prevention devices.”

Gates aside, residence life director Anthony Donovan discussed what could be done to reduce vulnerability. He sees it as a matter of “education and active participation to enhance people’s safety.”

The residence life staff checks for locked doors throughout the year and always has resident assistants and directors on call and making rounds. Residence hall staffers have the ability to schedule programming to address any pertinent issues, although, according to Donovan, personal safety/crime prevention programming is significantly under- attended.

“We get people who are already concerned about safety and security,” Donovan said. Yet, he feels that if one person benefits, it’s worth doing. Between programs like R.A.D (Rape Aggression Defense), convos like Tongue Fu, the art of verbal self-defense, and newsletters, Donovan hopes the effects will be in the combined offerings.

“We try to reach as many areas of concern with students by trying different approaches,” he said.

Beyond reminding students to lock doors and the like, White was quick to warn of being lulled into a false sense of security.

“Safety precautions still need to be taken,” White said.

As for the students’ perspective, the reviews are mixed.

“The office of security does a really good job and a lot of the issues they have to deal with are not their fault,” sophomore commuter student Hannah Shipp said. Shipp, more often than not, finds herself leaving campus after 9 p.m. and stated firmly that she feels safe.

Sophomore Jordan Smith explained that there should be “more concentration on keeping bad intruders out” than ticketing students for smoking or parking violations.

“It’s a waste of resources” Smith said, “it’s a relatively small campus, there’s no reason for this to be happening.”

Junior social entrepreneurship major Sarah Chellappa said she felt safe “for the most part,” though “as a girl there will always be that extra caution.”

Mostly, Chellappa sees pointlessness in the reappearance of gates that didn’t work in the first place.