Lawrence Journal-World opinion section

Kansas University must give top priority to addressing reports that are making it at least appear that KU students face an unusually high risk of being sexually assaulted.

In the last six weeks, three lawsuits have been filed against KU related to two alleged sexual assaults in 2014 and 2015 in Jayhawker Towers. In both cases, the women student athletes say KU failed to properly investigate their reports and to protect them against retaliation from their coaches. The KU football player who the two women say assaulted them was expelled but not until this year.

A recent report from the Clery Center for Security on Campus, which was the focus of a Journal-World story earlier this month, also raised questions about campus safety. The report showed there were more sexual assault reports at KU in 2014 than at any other Big 12 school except the much larger University of Texas. During that year, 32 instances of forcible sex offenses — defined as rape or fondling — were reported on or near the KU campus.

This is a difficult problem, and KU is not alone. Two lawsuits also were filed earlier this week against Kansas State University by women students who allege the university refused to investigate their rapes and other sexual assaults in off-campus fraternity houses. A total of 173 postsecondary schools are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education for their handling of sexual violence investigations. Privacy issues make it difficult for KU and other universities to publicly comment on their handling of the cases or defend themselves against criticism.

There’s more than one way to look at the Clery statistics. Do they indicate there are more sexual assaults at KU than at other campuses, or does KU have more reports because it provides services and support that make students more willing to report assaults? Maybe the fact that KU is focusing on preventing and responding to sexual assaults actually increases the number of reports.

Most of the 32 assaults in the Clery report apparently were reported only to university officials, such as those in KU’s Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access, which investigates reports of sexual assault separately from police. Statistics from the KU Office of Public Safety show only seven sex crime reports during 2014.

The relationship between law enforcement and the university may be important to proper handling of these cases. In many cases, women wait for months or even years to report their assaults, making their cases more difficult to investigate. Maybe KU officials should open a dialogue with local police and prosecutors to discuss how these reports can be handled in a better, more timely manner.

Prevention obviously is the best answer, and KU officials are working to raise awareness through a number of steps including the opening this spring of the KU Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center. Those are positive actions, but KU also needs to work with its peer institutions and law enforcement to address this problem before it has a serious negative impact on the university’s reputation.