The University’s response to last Monday’s stabbing incident raises concern about Cornell’s safety protocols and alert procedures. Cornell’s crime alert e-mail reported the incident as merely a robbery and was sent over two and a half hours after it happened, both downplaying the fact that a student was physically harmed and failing to alert the community about suspects who remained at large.

Questions persist surrounding the details of the situation, particularly about the degree of physical harm endured by the student. While The Sun reported the incident as a stabbing, the University has refused to acknowledge this wording, insisting that only a “small puncture wound” was endured.

Ultimately, though, the details of the injury are not the primary issue. What is truly of concern is that the University has been tiptoeing around the fact that a violent incident took place. Furthermore, despite the abundance of rumors and mixed messages circulating on campus, the University has remained silent, neglecting to clarify the event itself with a follow-up e-mail to students. Instead, there remains contradictions between The Sun’s news reports, the University’s statements and what students believe.

This is not the first time this semester that the University’s communications on campus crime have been questioned. Once again, we have to ask, why has their been no follow-up by the University? While Cornell presents safety information on the CUInfo website, we believe these steps are not enough. The University community would be well served by a more proactive approach.

While crime alerts from the University can help to quell students’ concerns, we wonder if they go far enough.

On the night of the incident, the delayed response to the event allowed for confusion. Prior to the official crime alert, student group list-serves were warning students that a crime had occurred. A lack of accurate information surrounding what had happened allowed rumors to spread. We hope that in the future the University will respond sooner and with clarity in order to ensure student safety.

In the past, we have been quick to criticize the University’s response system in regards to student safety, and we recognize the University has taken small steps toward improving communication, including the new link to the Ithaca Police Department website on CUInfo. Still, we remain skeptical of how effective the current system really is.