The number of rapes reported to University Police Department increased from two in 2005 to 13 in 2006.
Robert Fey, assistant director of the Department of Public Safety, said he thought the reports increased so much in one year because Ball State University hired victim advocate Michele Cole in March.
"People are more willing to come out and admit they have been victimized with someone like Michele who shows them that they have options," Fey said. "I don't think it has anything to do with an increase in the numbers of how often this actually happens."
Cole said many of the victims come to her before they go to the police.
"In one instance, a victim came to me wanting to document the situation but did not want to go to the police," Cole said. "We called a police officer over, and he was very nice about the whole thing. So it is good to be able to show victims that they have options."
Fey said another factor in the increased number of rapes was the type of rape reports called in.
"A lot of the time, if not all the time, the reported rape call is generally described as date rape scenarios as opposed to a blitz rape, where someone would randomly attack a person and try to sexually assault them," Fey said.
Joellen Kirkman, police records coordinator for the Department of Public Safety, said because not all UPD calls received happen on campus, the number will never be completely accurate.
"Some people use Ball State's UPD as a safe haven for them for one reason or another," Kirkman said. "Some offenses may happen by a student of this university but will not take place anywhere near our campus."
James Hendricks, chairperson of the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, said the number of reported charges might not reveal much, if anything at all.
"Even if the numbers rise, what do they mean? Were there two, 20 or 200? We do not know that," Hendricks said. "I just know that I am happy that Ball State brought in a good victim advocate and that the police department is sensitive to the issue."
Though the department considers this an important issue, Fey said the numbers can be deceiving.
According to the records, of those 13 reported rapes, five of them took place off campus. Fey said he thought those calls were made to Ball State for safety reasons.
"Those people called because they considered us a middle ground," Fey said. "They did not want to call Muncie's police department, so they called us. However, we will stay committed to making sure that increases in these serious categories are dropped because even the best decreases in the biggest categories mean nothing if we can not keep the real serious offenses down."
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