SMU student reports being sexually assaulted by acquaintance

The assault happened Monday in the Perkins residence hall.

AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez

The assault took place on the SMU campus. This is a picture from the view of Dallas Hall, taken in 2007.

DALLAS — An SMU student reported an on-campus sexual assault to the SMU police, according to a crime alert issued to the campus Tuesday afternoon.

The student told SMU police that she was sexually assaulted by an acquaintance who has also been identified as a SMU student at the Perkins residence hall early Monday morning.

Kent Best, the executive director of News and Media Relations said in a statement:

“SMU takes all allegations of sexual assault seriously and its police department vigorously investigates all such complaints. The alleged sexual assault reported to SMU police on Jan. 21 is under police investigation. Anyone with information about this matter is asked to contact SMU Police at 214-768-3388.”

This is the sixth reported sexual assault on campus since the beginning of the school year.

This past September, junior Donald Cuba was indicted by a grand jury for sexual assault that allegedly occurred in March 2012.

His trial is set to begin on March 25.

Sophomore John David Mahaffey was arrested in late September 2012 after allegedly sexually assaulting another male student. He was indicted in November and as of now there is no trial date set for that case.

Dr. Lori White recently sent out an email to students, staff, and faculty in regards to the sexual assault task force. The email said the task force has created an email address to "obtain feedback from the SMU community on current sexual misconduct policies and practices."

The task force will accept any feedback or comments sent to taskforce@smu.edu until January 28.