I would like to respond to Emily Friedman's Thursday column, "Incident puts UW's dedication to safety in question." Emily and I agree on more than we disagree, but there are several points I would like to call attention to.

First and foremost, the Offices of the Dean of Students (ODOS) and the UW-Madison administration has a strong commitment to keeping students safe during their time on campus and in our community. I could not agree more that we have to take allegations of sexual assault seriously and investigate them thoroughly, and that is exactly what we are doing. I agree that open discussion is preferable to keeping secrets; the exception being cases in which students' confidentiality must or should be protected.

I also agree that it is certainly problematic that a student can withdraw from UW-Madison without ever talking, in person, with an administrator. As we move more and more toward an electronic world, I believe we need to take a step back and think about what we're losing. One of my first priorities is to determine how we can work with our current system to ensure that human interaction is in the equation.

I most certainly agree that we would have hoped to — or should have — learned of this alleged assault long before the story aired as part of a Channel 27 newscast.

Over the past several years, the lines of communication between the Madison Police Department, the UW Police Department, and ODOS have improved dramatically; this incident clearly suggests that there is a need for continued improvement. The fact is that the police usually do inform us of incidents such as this, unless the alleged victim requests that they do not do so. I do not know the circumstances in this particular instance, but I can assure you that it will be part of our ongoing conversation with MPD.

I want to state unequivocally that we strongly encourage students who have been the victim of a sexual assault, or other crime, to make a report with our Student Advocacy and Judicial Affairs office by calling (608) 263-5700, visiting http://www.wisc.edu/students/ or coming to 75 Bascom Hall.

Our staff can discuss options for a disciplinary investigation, but will also advocate for students and connect them to resources on and off campus that will help support them through what is assuredly a most difficult time.

In addition, we are taking steps to proactively address some of these issues, rather than only reacting to them once they occur. The student organization alcohol policy discussion is one such example. As we continue to work with our Greek organizations and registered student organizations on alcohol policy, the safety of our university community continues to be of paramount concern.

Finally, I'd like to say that I appreciate the media coverage of what is a very serious and important issue. The university community needs to be aware of the occurrence of sexual assault and other violent crimes, and the news media does us all a service in keeping us aware of and engaged with the fact that campus safety is something that must involve us all.

Lori M. Berquam

Dean of Students