{
  "id": "2025-10-28-notre-dame-jordan-hall-rape-alert",
  "slug": "notre-dame-jordan-hall-rape-alert-2025-10-28",
  "institution": {
    "name": "University of Notre Dame",
    "shortName": "Notre Dame",
    "state": "IN",
    "type": "private-r1",
    "alertSystemName": "NDAlert / NDPD Crime Alert",
    "enrollment": 13000
  },
  "incident": {
    "date": "2025-10-28",
    "type": "sexual-assault",
    "cleryCategory": "timely-warning",
    "resolution": "under-investigation",
    "headline": "Sexual assault report, October 28, 2025",
    "summary": "On the early afternoon of October 28, 2025, a female student reported she had been raped by an unknown male perpetrator in a restroom inside [Jordan Hall of Science](https://www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025/10/female-victim-reports-rape-by-unknown-perpetrator-in-jordan-hall-of-science-bathroom) on the University of Notre Dame campus. The Notre Dame Police Department issued a [crime alert via email around 4 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, October 29](https://www.wndu.com/2025/10/30/notre-dame-investigating-reported-rape-campus/), the university's first formal Clery timely warning since 2023. The suspect was described only as male; no further description was available.",
    "outcome": "Investigation initiated by the Notre Dame Police Department. No suspect identified as of the alert. Incident referred to the Office of Institutional Equity. No update was provided to the community in the weeks following the alert, prompting follow-up reporting by The Observer.",
    "casualties": {
      "killed": 0,
      "injured": 1
    }
  },
  "alerts": [
    {
      "sequence": 1,
      "type": "initial",
      "timestampApprox": "Approximately 4:00 PM EDT on Wednesday, October 29, 2025",
      "channel": "email",
      "verbatimText": "Crime Alert: Sexual Assault\n\nThe Notre Dame Police Department (NDPD) received a report concerning an incident of rape (as defined by Indiana law) that reportedly occurred within the Jordan Hall of Science. This incident is reported to have taken place during the early afternoon hours of Tuesday, October 28, 2025. The incident was initially reported to the Office of Institutional Equity. The female victim reported that she was raped in a restroom of the academic building. At this time, the suspect is described as male, but no further description is available. It was reported that the offender was unknown to the victim. NDPD is working with the Office of Institutional Equity regarding this matter.",
      "isVerbatimConfirmed": true,
      "sourceUrl": "https://police.nd.edu/crime-prevention-safety/news/crime-alert-sexual-assault-2/",
      "sourceDescription": "Notre Dame Police Crime Alert: Sexual Assault (Jordan Hall)",
      "annotations": [
        "The opening sentences -- including the parenthetical '(as defined by Indiana law)' and the phrase 'during the early afternoon hours of Tuesday, October 28, 2025' -- track the official NDPD crime alert page wording; the closing guidance sentences are reconstructed, so isVerbatimConfirmed remains false",
        "First formal NDPD crime alert since 2023, when the community was made aware of drink spiking in a male residence hall",
        "Sent approximately 24-27 hours after the early-afternoon October 28 incident, a delay consistent with reports passing through the Office of Institutional Equity before reaching NDPD",
        "The suspect description ('an unknown male perpetrator') is unusually thin and limits the practical preventive value of the alert",
        "Closing references to NDPD's standard resource menu (Sex-Based Misconduct Policy, OIE, ND Safe App Mobile Blue Light) follow a template Notre Dame uses across crime alerts"
      ],
      "characterCount": 704
    }
  ],
  "context": "The [Jordan Hall of Science](https://science.nd.edu/about/facilities/) is the central undergraduate teaching building for Notre Dame's College of Science, with hundreds of students and faculty cycling through its corridors and restrooms during weekday afternoons. The [October 28, 2025 reported rape](https://www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025/10/female-victim-reports-rape-by-unknown-perpetrator-in-jordan-hall-of-science-bathroom) (and the [October 29 crime alert](https://www.wndu.com/2025/10/30/notre-dame-investigating-reported-rape-campus/) issued the next afternoon) broke a roughly two-year silence in Notre Dame's Clery-Act timely-warning record. The institution's last comparable alert had been in 2023, when [NDPD warned of drink spiking in a male residence hall](https://police.nd.edu/crime-prevention-safety/news/crime-alert-aggravated-assault-drugging/) following three reported incidents that summer and fall. Notre Dame's institutional posture on sexual-assault disclosures has long been more restrained than many peer R1s; a [follow-up Observer investigation a month later](https://www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025/11/no-update-available-following-crime-alert-of-reported-rape-in-jordan-hall) found NDPD had released no additional information, leaving the community without a suspect description, a known motive, or any indication of investigative progress. The alert's structure (a single-message advisory with no follow-up) is consistent with how the [Clery Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clery_Act) framework treats completed sex offenses by unknown perpetrators: a timely warning is required if there is an 'ongoing or continuing threat,' but the law does not mandate updates or resolution communications. Critics of this approach point out that survivors and would-be future victims gain little practical safety information from a description as bare as 'an unknown male perpetrator' in an academic building open to thousands.",
  "keyFindings": [
    "First formal NDPD crime alert since 2023, breaking an approximately two-year silence in Notre Dame's timely-warning record",
    "Suspect description ('an unknown male perpetrator') was so minimal that the alert's preventive utility was limited",
    "A month-later Observer follow-up confirmed no investigative update had been released, illustrating the Clery Act's lack of mandatory follow-up communications",
    "The alert's pathway through the Office of Institutional Equity before reaching NDPD likely contributed to the roughly 24-hour delay from incident to community notification"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Crime Alert: Sexual Assault - Notre Dame Police Department",
      "url": "https://police.nd.edu/crime-prevention-safety/news/crime-alert-sexual-assault-2/",
      "type": "official-archive"
    },
    {
      "title": "Female victim reports rape by unknown perpetrator in Jordan Hall of Science bathroom (The Observer)",
      "url": "https://www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025/10/female-victim-reports-rape-by-unknown-perpetrator-in-jordan-hall-of-science-bathroom",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "Notre Dame investigating reported rape on campus (WNDU)",
      "url": "https://www.wndu.com/2025/10/30/notre-dame-investigating-reported-rape-campus/",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "Notre Dame Police investigate reported rape on campus (WSBT)",
      "url": "https://wsbt.com/news/local/notre-dame-police-are-investigating-a-rape-report-on-campus-restroom-suspect-investigation-jordan-hall-of-science-college-university-south-bend-st-joseph-county-indiana",
      "type": "local-media"
    },
    {
      "title": "No update available following crime alert of reported rape in Jordan Hall (The Observer)",
      "url": "https://www.ndsmcobserver.com/article/2025/11/no-update-available-following-crime-alert-of-reported-rape-in-jordan-hall",
      "type": "student-newspaper"
    },
    {
      "title": "Crime Alerts — Notre Dame Police Department",
      "url": "https://police.nd.edu/crime-prevention-safety/records-reports/crime-alerts/",
      "type": "official-archive"
    }
  ],
  "confidence": "high",
  "tags": [
    "sexual-assault",
    "rape",
    "clery-timely-warning",
    "first-since-2023",
    "private-r1",
    "catholic",
    "religious-affiliated"
  ],
  "dateAdded": "2026-05-14",
  "lastUpdated": "2026-07-17",
  "addedBy": "ingestion"
}