To the Editor:

As is so often the case, the Daily tries to raise a “Red Scare” over an issue without any supporting documentation.

A case in point is the recent editorial on campus safety, or the alleged lack thereof. Included in the editorial was this statement: “In an age when sexual assaults on college campuses are on the rise, an absence of a well-funded escort service here at Iowa State has not bode well for the university.”

Define assaults on campus. Are these dorm room attacks, or attacks on people walking to the library? Are these assaults on a campus in Detroit, or in Ames? What time of the day do these alleged attacks occur? How many attacks have occurred this year? Last year? Five years ago? Ten years ago?

I ask because I served on a safety committee in grad school investigating these same alleged problems. What we found out was that there had been no reported attacks in the past year by people walking across campus, despite the perceived dangers involved.

Assume some responsibility, editorial board. If you are going to take advantage of the freedom of the press, be prepared to back that freedom with facts, not uninformed paranoia.

Brad Lucht

M.S. ’89