NU Students Organize Self-Defense Classes After On-Campus Attacks

EVANSTON, IL — Northwestern University students have responded to reports of three incidents where women were attacked at night on the Evanston campus by organizing self-defense classes, the Daily Northwestern reported. Many residents of the sorority quad where two of the attacks took place expressed concerns to university leaders that the first two attacks had not been reported to students, a sorority member told the paper.

The most recent incident took place around 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 in the 1800 block of Hinman Avenue, and the school sent out an alert the following day. Two men stole a woman's backpack after approaching her from behind, according to the university.

Four days earlier, between 10:10 and 10:20 p.m., a man reportedly grabbed a student from behind as she walked in the 600 block of University Place, near Scott Hall Circle. He demanded her phone number before she was able to escape. (Yontan Vazquez, Jr., 21, was arrested and charged with battery in connection with the Nov. 4 incident, the Daily reported.)

A week earlier, on Oct. 28, a woman walking across the street at Sheridan Road and Chicago Avenue, in the area of the sorority quad, was grabbed from behind by a man who said he wanted to take nude photographs of her. He was described as a tall, white man with blonde hair and a thick Russian accent.

The Daily Northwestern reported at least two undergraduate students have independently organized self-defense classes in the wake of the attacks. One said she had always intended to do, it had become "something that seemed required to do at the moment."

Under federal law, universities must provide timely warnings of crimes that represent a safety threat to students or staff. Under state law, police forces at private universities are exempt from disclosure requirements that apply to public records.

Earlier: 3 Women Attacked At Northwestern, 2 Near Sororities: Campus Alert