On Campus Support
Off Campus Support
For after-hours support, for individuals not living on campus, contact one of the emergency options listed below or call 911.
Hospital Information
Important Note: For anyone in an immediate serious crisis, take the individual to one of the local hospital emergency rooms or call 911.
- Mercy Hospital (Sexual Assault Forensic Exam): 410-332-9477
- GBMC Hospital: 443-849-3323
Other Emergency Options
Important: For anyone in an immediate serious crisis, call 911.
- TurnAround, Inc. (Sexual Assault/Domestic Violence Support Services) 24 hour helpline: 443-279-0379
- National Hope Network (Suicide and mental health): 1-800-784-2433
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Preserving Evidence
The preservation of evidence in incidents of sexual assault, dating/domestic violence, and stalking is critical to potential criminal prosecution and to obtaining peace/protective orders and is particularly time sensitive. The following actions are recommended steps to preserve evidence:
Sexual Assault:
- Complainants are encouraged to seek medical assistance in cases of physical or sexual assault. Upon request, campus police will provide transportation to Mercy Medical Center, designated as one of the city’s rape treatment centers. Mercy Medical Center has trained nurses who perform the Sexual Assault Forensics Exam (SAFE) up to 5 days or 120 hours after the assault occurred. If an individual experienced an assault that occurred more than 5 days or 120 hours prior and wants to receive a SAFE, they should contact Mercy Medical Center, Title IX, or the Sexual Violence Prevention, Education, and Response Coordinator.
- It is recommended that the complainant not take a shower or wash or discard clothing they were wearing at the time of the assault.
- All clothing (including underwear) worn around the time of the assault should be put into a paper bag and brought to the hospital.
- Preservation of any related or electronic communications (e.g., pictures, videos, texts, social media posts, etc.) is recommended.
- During a SAFE, sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs) will provide victim services, including treatment of injuries and steps to address concerns of pregnancy (if applicable) and/or sexually transmitted infections.
- A complainant does not have to decide whether or not to file criminal charges before obtaining a SAFE.
- SAFEs are free, and the evidence will be kept in a secured locker indefinitely.
- There is no statute of limitation on filing a criminal complaint for felony crimes in Maryland. If a complainant wishes to remain anonymous, they can have the exam listed as a Jane Doe/John Doe for confidentiality.
Dating or Domestic Violence:
- Log any incident of abuse (verbal, physical, emotional, or otherwise). Suggested steps for logging incidents can be found below in the section on preserving evidence in stalking incidents.
- Take timestamped photos of injuries or any damage to property.
- If you are injured during an incident, seeking medical attention may be needed.
- Mercy Medical Center has trained SANEs who perform Interpersonal Violence (IPV) Exams for individuals who have experienced dating or domestic violence and will provide victim services including treating any emergent medical needs and providing written and photographic documentation of any injuries. An on-call University staff member may also accompany and assist an individual at the hospital.
- IPV exams are not free of charge and can be billed to insurance. If the person who experienced interpersonal violence is uninsured, Mercy Medical Center can discuss options for financial assistance.
- IPV exams cannot be listed anonymously in the same way SAFEs can.
Stalking:
- It is recommended that the complainant preserve evidence of contact or attempted contact by the respondent. Evidence in the form of text and voice messages will be lost in most cases if the Complainant changes their phone number. Complainant should:
- Make a secondary recording of any voice messages and/or save the audio files to a cloud server
- Take screenshots and/or a video recording of any text messages or other electronic messages (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook)
- Save copies of e-mail and social media correspondence, including notifications related to account access alerts
- Take timestamped photographs of any physical evidence including notes, gifts, etc. in place when possible
- Save copies of any messages, to include those showing any request for no further contact
- Obtain copies of call logs showing the specific phone number being used rather than a saved contact name if possible
- Resources such as a stalking log can be useful to track contacts and attempted contacts