Sexual assault reported at NC State fraternity

Early Sunday morning, NC State issued a Wolf Alert about a sexual assault that happened at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house.

A university spokesperson said the attack allegedly happened around 1 a.m. and was reported just after 2 a.m. on Sunday.

The assailant was described as a white man between the ages of 18 and 20 with brown hair, wearing a Christmas sweater. He was described as being between 5 foot 6 and 6 feet tall, weighing 140-180 pounds.

The university did not say whether alleged attacker or survivor were members of the campus community, but did say that patrols would be increased around the Lambda Chi Alpha house.

Students around campus remained vigilant Monday afternoon but none were interested in speaking with WRAL on camera. The president of the Interfraternity Council, Thomas Bynum, didn't respond to a request for comment by publication.

Monika Johnson Hostler says most people who experience sexual violence know their assailant, so the details of the incident seeming random raise extra concerns.

"It puts us all on guard," said Johnson Hostler, the executive director at the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault. "It's all of our responsibilities to keep people safe, not just the survivor protecting themselves. I think it's scarier for the survivor but it also creates quite a bit of unrest for an entire college campus."

The advocate says, in reality, sexual assaults remain under-reported. But Johnson Hostler recalls what it was like more than two decades ago when she began this work on college campuses. She says, at that time, every school around the state saw zero or one report made a year.

Johnson Hostler says survivors often have to ask themselves a number of questions before deciding if they want to file a formal police report.

"It's no longer going to be a private decision that they have," said the executive director. "It will now be in the hands of the university. So while the universities certainly all try to practice discretion, the truth is, once it's reported, is going to be likely that people know that the survivor has reported sexual assault, and also know the person that sexually assaulted them. And sadly, enough, survivors are holding all of that responsibility before they choose or decide to make a report."

She says that instead of reporting assaults, students might share details with confidential reporters like those at health services or they may seek accommodations as they cope with what happened to them.

"Sexual violence is trauma."

She also says that students who have experienced sexual violence against them on campus could face PTSD associated with the assault as well as anxiety and depression and they're also more likely to drop out or transfer to a different school.

"We certainly know that the ways in which sexual violence happened on college campuses are just a smaller microcosm of our society but because it's a close knit community, we hear more about it," said Johnson Hostler. "We believe that there is more we can do about it."