The Assault

We are getting ready for students to return to the university next week. The last few days, there have been first year students wandering the campus trying to find their classrooms. There is the annual influx of international students as well, in their seasonal hunt for on campus jobs. They are not allowed to work off campus for the first nine months they are in the US, so they rove the halls looking for graduate assistantships, tuition waivers, anything, really.

This past Friday was no exception. Early in the morning, around 9:00 a.m., there was an international student standing in the door of a secretary’s office, asking her about jobs. She told him some of the places to look, such as the library and the parking department. He was insisting that she call someone and get him a job, and of course, she could not do that. His English seemed to be very poor, and he just wasn’t getting the idea.

We have a young graduate student working in the office named Jackie. She has dark blond hair, very thin build, medium height, I suppose. She has a ready smile, very nice person, always willing to help with any project. In short, just the sort of person you would like to have working in your office.

I spoke to her Friday morning as she was working at the front counter, greeting students, answering phones—we were both glad it was the end of the week. Moments later the secretary brought her to my office in tears.

I’m not clear on all the details, but that last demanding international student asked Jackie where the men’s room was, and she must have gone into the hall with him to show him, and he may have asked her to take him there, feigning lack of understanding. When they rounded the corner, he grabbed her and tried to kiss her. She fought him off and he left the building.

When they told me this story, I said, “Call the police!” So the cops came and took a description and the details of what had happened, then they left to look for the kid.

This guy was so stupid, he actually came back to the office a little while later and picked up a job application. That same secretary, instead of calling the police, went back to Jackie’s desk to get her to come out and ID him. Of course by then he was gone. She did see him walking outside and declared, “That’s the guy!”

So we missed our chance to nab him. We hope he returns the job app, and that will be his undoing.

We all felt just terrible for Jackie, and the rest of the day we escorted her wherever she had to go, and tried to look out for her. Our day was pretty much shot by all the excitement.

So you never know. Such incidents are few and far between. Some students fear the street people who pass along the campus, but sometimes you have to be more wary of your own peers.