Last Tuesday, a student was the victim of an attempt to carry her off in a car. This happened while she was cycling home alone after an orientation activity. Radboud University asks participants to watch out for each other and make sure everyone gets home safely.

“Unfortunately, we almost had a situation yesterday whereby one of our students was carried off in a car on the way back from an activity”. That is the content of a message posted in the night from Wednesday to Thursday by the Radboud Intro organisation to a WhatsApp group consisting of all orientation committees. “I want to ask you to make sure that students do not cycle home alone and take extra care that everyone gets home safely.” *

The incident involved an orientation participant from the Faculty of Arts. The student was cycling home on Tuesday evening after an orientation activity. Near Goffert Park, she was cycling alone when an attempt was made to force her into a car. The student was eventually able to get away. The precise course of events is as yet unclear.

Shocked

‘She is obviously very shocked by this,’ says orientation coordinator Elke Moser Melis. ‘And so is the University, of course. Our concerns are for the victim, with whom the Faculty has had extensive contact. She is also getting support in filing a report and the confidential advisor has been called in.’

Due to the seriousness of the situation, the organisation decided to send a message to all orientation committees, Moser Melis says. ‘We didn’t want to sound too panicky. But we did want to stress that this requires serious attention. Which is why we briefly described the incident in our message.’

Committees were asked to share the message with their mentors – who could in turn share it with orientation participants. This apparently had not yet happened across the board by Thursday morning. When asked, mentors from the Psychology department, among others, said they had not seen the message.

‘We hope there will be no more incidents,’ Moser Melis concludes. ‘But we are calling on everyone to pay extra attention to each other.’

* The texts were sent in Dutch and are translated by Radboud in’to Languages.