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Oakland University notifies students of reported sexual assault, says suspect’s description matches 2019 incident

University says recent assault happened in May, student reported it in October

ROCHESTER, Mich.Oakland University is notifying the community about an attempted sexual assault it learned of this month

The university sent out an alert to students, saying the assault happened back in May but the victim reported it in October.

“Initially, when you see a notification like that, it’s pretty scary,” said Liv Murphy.

Murphy, a junior at Oakland University, said the email definitely got her attention.

On Friday, the university released information to students about a sexual assault.

“It was reported to the Oakland University Police Department that an attempted sexual assault reported today, Friday, October 8, took place on campus in May of this year,” read the the newsletter.

Click here to read the newsletter.

“Reading that it happened back in May, my initial thought was like ‘OK, still scary, but I’m glad that we’re still addressing it,’” said Murphy.

“I was just glad that she felt comfortable enough to come over and talk about it with someone, that could do something about it,” said sophomore Koda Grasl.

Also in the newsletter, it states, “An investigation into the incident has revealed that the suspect matches the description of a person reported to have been involved in a separate assault that occurred in October of 2019. In the earlier incident, also reported to have taken place on campus, the suspect was described as an acquaintance of the individual filing the report.”

Grasl said she’s glad the school informed them about the recent incident and previous one.

“Thinking that this person could have done it multiple times. But unfortunately it does happen a lot,” she said.

Junior Kayla Youcha said it’s a sad fact, but she’s glad the school is taking things seriously.

“I’m not surprised. Unfortunately, it’s on every college campus but Oakland is a pretty safe school. It’s one of the safest schools in Michigan. It’s very unfortunate though,” Youcha said.