Women at Kansas University have installed security systems, hung make-shift curtains, readjusted their blinds and purchased Mace.

All this since early December, when the Lawrence Police Department announced a 19-year-old Kansas University student was raped by an unidentified male who entered her home with a handgun at 2 a.m.

Police said “strong information” connected the December attack to four others in the city. In all five cases, police said, the attacker was armed with a weapon, sometimes a gun.

While most rapes in Lawrence involve people who know each other, a series of rapes by a stranger breaking into homes can send a community into high alert, said Sarah Jane Russell, executive director of GaDuGi SafeCenter.

“There’s this underlying fear because we don’t know who is out there committing these crimes,” she said.

All of the attacks have occurred between about 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. and during periods when KU students are on some type of a break from school. The attacks date back to 2004.

Police in Riley County also said they were investigating several rapes in Manhattan, home to Kansas State University, that could be related to the Lawrence cases.

Some of the 30 or so female students at KU professor Charlene Muehlenhard’s Women and Violence class, which meets on Thursdays, said they were taking precautions, but wished more information about the case was being released.

They pointed to the description of the suspect as a white male between 25 and 40 years old, 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet tall, with a slim build.

KU junior Ruthie Newman said that could be just about anyone.

“We don’t know what we are up against,” she said. “I could take someone at 5-8, but 6-4 could be a problem.”

Lawrence police Sgt. Bill Cory said this week that the investigation is a top priority for the department. But there was no new information in the case.

He did have general tips for staying safe. They include:

? Park in well-lit areas.

? Lock your doors and windows.

? Don’t answer the door unless you know who it is.

? If you don’t have a peephole, install one.

? When going out alone, tell someone where you are going, what you are doing and how long you are going to be there.

“I don’t want to sound like an alarmist or for people to become over-paranoid, but just be more aware of your surroundings,” Corey said. “Know what is going on around you, and if you see anything out of the ordinary, even if you think ‘well that’s silly,’ you probably ought to call the Lawrence Police Department.”