An attack on one ETSU student early Monday morning proved that walking alone on or near campus in the dark can be more than just a creepy threat. The alleged assault took place between 12:30 a.m. and 1:20 a.m. on College Heights Road, said Lt. Mike Orr of ETSU Public Safety. The victim is male, but authorities will not disclose his identity.

University and Johnson City Police investigators at this time have no idea who the attacker(s) are, he said. There is no description of the suspect(s), and no knowledge of how many there were exactly.

“The individual said he was walking, and the next thing he knows, he wakes up,” Orr said. “So he doesn’t know if somebody came along and hit him or knocked him down. He doesn’t remember much of anything.”

The victim was treated and released at the local medical center for bruises and lacerations on his hands and face, Orr said.

“It looks like a random incident,” he said. “As far as we can tell, there was nothing taken. As far as I know, he didn’t have any problems with anyone that he knew of.”

Later that morning, an e-mail titled “Gold Alert” was sent to students who are registered through Goldmail, Orr said. Additionally, a reminder e-mail was sent out at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesday, telling students to make sure to register for the university’s emergency notification system if they haven’t already.

Junior Michael Arnold was doing homework at approximately 3 a.m. on Oct. 26, when he received the alerting e-mail, he said.

Arnold works at the University Center office and parks his car across campus in the parking lot by Basler Center for Physical Activity, a place scarcely lit at night, he said.

“The lights don’t extend to the deep ends of the parking lots,” Arnold said. “You get about halfway through the parking lot and it’s pitch black.”

A skeptic of the alert system, Arnold didn’t take the e-mail seriously, he said. Previous campus alerts that he’s seen this semester have not been tailored with follow-up e-mails, leaving him and other students to believe the incidents were a hoax.

“Unless you check the ETSU page and still see that it’s [the campus alert] in effect, you just think it might have fallen off,” he said. “Other than that, you don’t hear anything about it, so it just doesn’t stick.”

Arnold continued explaining why he’s not convinced that these campus attacks are serious. “I’ve signed up for the texting system and still haven’t received a text,” Arnold said. “And apparently, a lot of people haven’t either.”

In an interview, Orr explained that students aren’t receiving text messages because the service has been discontinued. Cell phone delays and the multiple telecommunication vendors that the university must work with have made it impossible for the communication medium to work successfully.

There are, however, other forms in which the alerts can be spread to students, faculty and staff, he said. In addition to e-mail, people can also register to GoldAlert through Facebook, Twitter and FriendFeed.

The Department of Public Safety hopes that the use of multiple virtual communities will ensure a solid alert system.

“Students just have to call,” Orr said. Public Safety officers will respond to calls 24 hours a day, and officers will even accompany students walking across campus to their cars.

Author