Help available for stalking victims at U.

The recent murder of Shannon Schieber has brought about a heightened awareness of stalking and harassment within the University community. Although the first-year Wharton doctoral student did not, in fact, file a stalking complaint with Penn Police, she did file a report concerning a verbal threat and harassing behavior by fellow Wharton doctoral student Yuval Bar-Or. However you define it, stalking and harassment are both very serious issues, with very similar psychological effects, according to Elena DiLapi, director of Penn's Women's Center. "A lot of women don't come in and say either 'I'm being stalked' or 'I'm being harassed'," DiLapi said. "They are just very upset." DiLapi explained that it is very difficult to estimate the actual number of stalking incidents on campus because only a small percentage of cases are brought to the attention of the Women's Center. Susan Hawkins -- director of special services at the University's Division of Public Safety -- noted that most stalking victims are reluctant to file complaints due to one of two reasons. "Either they are truly afraid of the person, or at the other extreme, they underestimate their risk," Hawkins said. And although the overwhelming majority of stalking victims are female, men are not completely invulnerable. DiLapi estimated that males are the targets in approximately three to four percent of the stalking cases that the Women's Center handles. Hawkins added that men are probably more reluctant to report harassment due to cultural stereotypes. "Their friends make them feel sheepish about reporting it," she said. "There's probably a lot more out there that we don't know about." And although the Women's Center has not yet compiled specific data on stalking at the University, DiLapi said the typical stalker is usually not unknown to the victim. "It might not be someone you necessarily know, but it's probably someone you've seen around," she said. "Usually it's someone who's asked you out before, maybe repeatedly, or someone you've dated at some point." Although it may be a serious problem, University Police Det. Commander Tom King said it has been "pretty quiet," stalking-wise, during his nearly year-long tenure. "We've been pretty fortunate in that respect," he said. And the recently enacted Harassment and Stalking statute in the Pennsylvania Criminal Code has made it easier to arrest stalkers, making a first offense a first-degree misdemeanor and the second, a third-degree felony. "In the past, before the statute was passed, you had to come in at [stalking] from an angle," King explained. "You had to get them on a weapons charge or something else." Although Hawkins doesn't believe stalking is rampant at the University, she said it doesn't have to be to be troubling. "You don't have to have a huge incidence for something to be a problem," she said. "The cases we do know of are all very disturbing and scary for those involved." There are several campus resources out there for victims of stalking and harassment, such as the Women's Center, which offers crisis intervention and ongoing counselling. Hawkins also emphasized the importance of filing a complaint with the Penn Police in order to begin documentation should further harassment occur. "Don't ignore it and don't pretend it's going to go away," Hawkins advised. "It's important to deal with a problem like that." But recent College graduate Melissa Goldstein, who works at the Women's Center, said that little action is taken against stalkers at Penn. "I know people that have been stalked on this campus and nothing happens to the stalkers," she said. "They don't get expelled and reports filed with Penn Police just disappear after the stalker graduates -- there's no real consequences."