The University of Utah recorded 146 reported rapes in 2024, according to federal Department of Education data reviewed by the New York Post, a figure that made the Salt Lake City school stand out in national reporting on campus sexual assault. But a closer look at the numbers, first reported by the Salt Lake Tribune, shows that 110 of those 146 reports stem from a single case.
The university said in a news briefing, and in an alert sent to campus, that the 110 reports came from what it described as a “multiple-month relationship plagued by interpersonal violence” between one woman and one man. Under Department of Education reporting rules, each alleged assault must be logged separately, even when it involves the same alleged victim reporting repeated abuse within a single relationship.
Of the remaining reports counted in the Post’s review, 122 of the total 146 incidents took place in dormitories, 18 occurred in other campus buildings, and six happened on off-campus property run by the university or a student organization, according to the federal data cited by the Post. The Post’s broader review of federal and state crime data found 5,799 rapes were reported at American colleges and universities in 2024.
This is not the first time a single relationship has driven the bulk of the University of Utah’s reported numbers. During the 2021-2022 school year, the school reported 175 rapes, of which 150 stemmed from one relationship, according to prior reporting.
The university has not disputed the underlying reports; it has pointed to federal counting requirements to explain why repeated incidents within one relationship inflate the overall total. The school’s disclosures are made under the Clery Act, the federal law requiring colleges to report campus crime statistics annually.
You must be logged in to post a comment Login