Poor word choice on sexual assaults

By Julie A. Williamson, Las Vegas

Saturday, May 10, 2014 | 2:02 a.m.

It was a relief to learn from Wednesday’s Sun story “Report offers guidelines for campus safety” that UNLV has a process in place to help protect victims of sexual assault.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, though, when I read the quote at the end of the article offered by UNLV official Phillip Burns, director of UNLV’s student conduct office.

The quote attributed to Burns: “There’s a chilling effect,” he said. “I almost hope we get more (sexual assault) reports because that means more people are comfortable coming forward.”

No! Maybe it means that Burns is not doing his job in educating students about reporting the misconduct. Couldn’t Burns accept that UNLV students are intelligent enough to know how to protect themselves and how to report misconduct?

If he truly believes that there is underreporting, maybe he should expand his program to educate students about sexual assault.

My daughter is a UNLV student, and she was shocked that a UNLV official would hope for more cases. She said he must be hoping to save his job.

It would have been comforting if Burns had echoed the simple, concise quote attributed to another UNLV official: “Our primary focus is student safety.”

I’m sure Burns would like to take his quote back. Shame on him for wishing for more reporting.