Students Plan Walkout at Seton Hall University

The Seton Hall University student walkout scheduled for Monday afternoon will go on as planned, according to a walkout organizer.

Seton Hall University sophomore and organizer William Suggs notified participants late Sunday the walkout, planned when  Tuesday, will begin at 12:30 p.m. That assault, though, .

The walkout is in response what organizers believe to be the campus' supposed lack of security in recent weeks and the need to protect students on and off campus, according to Suggs.

In an e-mail obtained by Patch and addressed to students, Suggs suggests reports of the assault, the first of which was an e-mail notification from the university, "have served to galvanize the student body and we must now seize this opportunity to affect change."

Specifically, Suggs writes, "the University (sic) needs to reassess the following areas: on (sic) and off-campus security, University's (sic) response to the latest incident, cooperation with the community on crime and prioritization of safety education."

The female victim had first reported the assault happened about 11 p.m. Tuesday in an on-campus parking lot while she was walking from the college library to her dorm. Late Friday, the college announced that the victim had changed her account of what happened and said it did not occur on campus.

"She recanted her assertion that the sexual assault happened on campus," said Thomas White, the college's vice president for communications, in a Saturday interview with Patch. "The woman now says she went with a man willingly off-campus, where a sexual assault took place. That's what the police are investigating."

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office is continuing its investigation into the incident. No charges have been filed.

In the wake of the initial report, security had been tightened with more campus patrols and warnings to students to walk in groups.

Still, Suggs notes in his e-mail, "We cannot ignore the fact that the event exposed numerous areas in which security needs to improve."

The alleged assault incident comes just two months after Nicholas Welch, 25, of East Orange, allegedly opened fire on students at an off-campus party. Two Seton Hall students were injured and one was killed. Welch and his alleged accomplice, Marcus Bascus, 19, of East Orange, are charged with the murder.

The walkout, scheduled during a class period, calls for participants to leave class to gather on the green at the center of Seton Hall's campus.

The e-mail sent to potential participants offered them wording to use when leaving class. It reads:

Dear Professor,

On Monday November 22, I will leave class at 12:30pm to take part in a campus-wide walkout. We are walking out in order to show our dissatisfaction with the level of safety on and around campus. Safety is an important issue that needs to be immediately addressed and my participation in this walkout is meant to reflect this.

Suggs said the school's current security doesn't meet the students' expectations.

"To expect Securitas or the South Orange Police to guarantee us 100% (sic) safety on or off-campus (sic) is not feasible and it is not what we are asking," he wrote. "Nevertheless, this does not mean that we as students cannot work with the two to increase our safety. There will always be crime but this is no excuse for allowing Seton Hall students to feel genuinely unsafe where they live and study."