On November 15, a 20-year-old Binghamton University student was attacked and robbed at the Ice House, a bar located in the city’s north side. At press time, it has been over two weeks and the University administration has released no information on the incident.
The victim is still in critical condition at a local hospital and the only information available is a post on the BPD’s Facebook page from November 26. BU students — especially those who live Downtown — needed to know this information sooner. That a BU student was viciously assaulted at a Binghamton bar and that the BU — as well as Binghamton — population was not made aware until nearly two weeks later is unacceptable. If the administration was unaware of the attack until now, that is disconcerting. If it was aware but did not inform students, we are left with questions.
It is possible that the Binghamton police were initially unaware that the victim was a student, but regardless, the incident was only made public in the past few days. An assault in a bar in a college town is not something to be kept quiet.
Earlier this semester, we wrote a similar editorial following a shooting at the Kennedy Fried Chicken on Main Street. Two months later, it seems that not much has changed.
If this incident had happened in Downtown Binghamton — like the brutal attack on Bryan Steinhauer outside The Rathskeller in 2008 — the University would have been tripping over itself to issue a statement. We acknowledge that it is certainly not the University’s job to nanny students who have made the decision to move or spend time off-campus, but it certainly has a responsibility to share information that could impact the safety of its students. We understand issues of confidentiality, but the identity of a victim does not need to be released for students to know to keep their guard up.
Details of this assault are still few and far between, and Pipe Dream will continue to investigate it. Yet, one thing is clear: Binghamton University students cannot be left in the dark — intentionally or unintentionally. It would go a long way toward building a culture of trust if the University and police department worked together to spread awareness to students. We all call Binghamton our home, and we all rely on the proper authorities to tell us what’s happening in our own backyard.