The assault took place in the McEown Park student residences.

The incident supposedly took place at the McEown Park towers off Cumberland Avenue.

“It was reported that alcohol and other drugs may have been involved in the assault,” wrote David Hannah, associate vice-president of student affairs, in a mass email sent out to students, faculty and staff at the university Feb. 17. “This incident was first reported to, and is being investigated by, the Saskatoon Police Service.”

Saskatoon Police spokesperson Alyson Edwards said police were sent to hospital the morning of Jan. 1 to interview the victim, where she was being treated for sexual assault related injuries. As of yet, the suspect has not been named, but according to Edwards the victim knew her attacker.

Edwards said there are several people who are known to have been with both the victim and attacker throughout the course of the night, and police are now trying to “track them down.”

Statistics show that in up to 80 per cent of sexual assault cases, the assailants are friends or family to the victim.

It is not yet clear why information about the assault was delayed. The U of S Campus Safety statistics page, at present, still shows zero cases of sexual assault for 2012.

Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the Saskatoon Police Service at 975-8300.

UPDATE: In an email to the Sheaf, David Hannah said that the incident was not immediately revealed because of an ongoing police investigation.

“In addition, our initial judgement was that, based on the information we did have, we didn’t think there was an imminent threat to other members of the university community, which is the criteria we have normally used to trigger such notices,” he wrote. “After meeting with the victim’s family, and reviewing the changing standard for such warnings at other institutions, we had second thoughts about this, and decided to send a notice out even if we weren’t sure there was an imminent risk to the campus community, in the interest of erring on the side of safety.”

Correction 02/28/2012: We had initially reported that the victim of the assault was a student at the U of S. This is not the case; while the victim was assaulted on campus, she is not a student.

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Photo: University of Saskatchewan