University Police Lt. Ken Kaiser said there were two criminal sexual assaults this past weekend in the dormitories.

“The University Police did not have any reports of sexual assault until this weekend. This weekend we have had two, one Friday evening and one Saturday evening,” Kaiser said.

Kaiser said the Friday night assault occurred in Stevenson Hall and the Saturday night incident occurred in Douglas Hall.

“They are both acquaintance sexual assaults,” Kaiser said.

e said both the incidents are under investigation by the UP Department.

Kaiser presented the information about the sexual assaults at Monday’s meeting of the Sexual Assault Task Force. The task force is comprised of representatives from local law enforcement agencies, service organizations and the university administration.

Jon Dalton, vice president for student affairs, earlier requested the subject of rumors of sexual assault at NIU be put on the task force agenda.

Dalton said he met with student leaders last week who gave him various numbers of sexual assaults which have allegedly occurred. He said “rumor control” is very important at this time to prevent “a situation of fear” on the NIU campus.

Dalton said a lot of confusion has been created over the difference between acquaintance-related assault and stranger-related assault.

“Part of the difficulty of getting a handle on what is going on and the extent of what is going on is the different kinds of sexual assault,” Dalton said.

DeKalb Police Sgt. Charles Kross explained that acquaintance rapes are incidents where the victim knows the assailant. He said stranger rapes occur when the victim does not know the attacker or can not distinguish the identity of the attacker due to concealment.

Kaiser said the department has received several calls from parents and area media who have heard rumors of a large number of rapes.

“I have had multiple calls from parents. The DeKalb Police Department has had over 100 calls. We’ve had calls from the media from the surrounding area asking what we are doing about the rapes that are occurring in the city of DeKalb. They have heard the numbers of 15 to 25 rapes occuring in one month alone.”

Kaiser said, “We have had no stranger rapes (on campus).”

Kross briefed the Sexual Assault Task Force on the three stranger rapes which occurred in DeKalb on Oct. 3, 13, and 25.

Kross said the Oct. 3 incident occurred at the Lincolnshire Apartments after a party at the residence.

The Oct 13. incident occurred in a grassy area south of the stadium and involved a man wearing a black or navy blue ski mask. The third incident, on Oct. 13, happened in a Greek Row area apartment and involved a man with a handgun and wearing a scarf.

“After doing some profiling, it does not appear that offender A in the ski mask is offender B with the scarf over his face,” he said. “At this point I really don’t see a connection between our criminal sexual assaults.”

Kross said the rumors of a large number of sexual assaults are untrue. “They are not happening as far as we know. If they are happening, we would like to know about them.”

e reported within the last five days there have been several reports from women who have been followed. Kross said one report involved a man with a red ski mask.

Kaiser said the UPs also are investigating several incidents of indecent exposure on campus.

“We have had five incidents of indecent exposure throughout the campus classroom areas since the first of August and three of them on the 11th (of November). They are under investigation,” he said.