Portland State University is considering a plan to create its own police force. Currently just 17 security guards patrol the 30,000-student campus.

The proposal took on tragic urgency this week, after a 27-year-old student walking to her dorm room early Monday, November 26, reported being hit over the head and sexually assaulted by a man she didn't know. The woman woke up in an alley behind her dorm at SW 10th and Market and called campus security, who then called Portland police.

PSU is unique among its 21 urban peer universities in not having a campus-run, independent police force. Unless a survivor of sexual assault reports the crime almost immediately afterward (as happened in this week's case), campus security will call Portland police officers, who—since it's not a crime-in-progress—can take several hours to show up, interview the survivor, and begin an investigation.

Read more at The Mercury.