Early Monday morning, one of our fellow students was raped on her way home from campus. A crime of this severity does not occur often within our seemingly secure Wash. U. bubble, making the University’s response all the more important. However, Washington University delivered a seemingly rushed message that failed in its responsibilities.

The St. Louis County prosecutor has declined to press charges this month in the case of a Washington University student who reported being sexually assaulted last semester.

So, after the latest attack on a (grad) student at our prestigious university, I have to wonder when—or if—something (anything!) is going to be done about the living conditions off campus. I find it highly ironic that while the University is busy turning the South 40 into Candy Land, students are getting mugged, beaten and robbed in and around their shady off-campus apartments. While I understand that the new South 40 is primarily intended to impress the money right out of Daddy’s wallet and into the chancellor’s lap, what I don’t understand is how the University can stand behind its off-campus housing situation.

A female graduate student was found physically beaten in the basement laundry room of her off-campus apartment building in the early afternoon on Monday, Dec. 21.

Correction Appended Below A graduate student was punched and robbed in broad daylight on Melville Avenue Wednesday afternoon, according to the Washington University Police Department. The student was walking on the street at 12:30 p.m. when the four men, described as black teenagers between 5-feet-6-inches and 5-feet-9-inches tall, asked him for money. When the student [...]