BRUNSWICK — A Bowdoin College student reported being raped in her off-campus apartment Tuesday night by an attacker who entered through an unlocked door, school officials said Thursday.

The 19-year-old woman lives in the Mayflower Apartments, which the college owns and operates.

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The woman did not know her attacker, according to an email sent Wednesday to all Bowdoin students by Randy Nichols, the college’s director of security. Brunswick police are investigating with assistance from Bowdoin security, Nichols wrote.

“The college is taking this seriously and is doing what it can to raise awareness of the issue and to take prudent safety precautions,” Bowdoin spokesman Doug Cook said Thursday.

The incident occurred at a time of increased focus on sexual assaults on college campuses nationwide. Bowdoin College reported 15 on-campus rapes and two off-campus rapes at college-owned property in 2014, far more than other Maine colleges of comparable size. Last year was the first year that colleges were required to break out certain sex crimes, including rape, domestic violence and stalking, in annual Clery Act crime statistics reported to the federal government.

Bowdoin officials said that some of the rapes reported in 2014 occurred in previous years but weren’t reported until last year. When asked how many rapes actually occurred in 2014, officials said they would not separate out that number because they didn’t want to appear to be undercounting campus assaults.

College officials said the high number also reflects the school’s effort in the past two years to increase faculty, staff and student training and education on how to report and handle reports of sexual assault.

Brunswick police Patrol Cmdr. Marc Hagan said officers were called to the Mayflower Apartments around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. The victim was taken to a local hospital for treatment.

“Right now, we don’t have a good working description (of the suspect),” Hagan said. “The investigation is still in its early stages. We need to meet with the victim again to get some more information. In the meantime, we’re asking anyone who had any information from anybody in the area who seemed suspicious or who saw anything that might not seem like much, but could be important to us to give us a call.

“This isn’t somebody who knew her. This is a stranger.”

The Mayflower Apartments are less than 1,000 feet from the campus on Belmont Street, a quiet street of mostly single-family homes with yards. It is a two-story, horseshoe-shaped building that houses about 32 students in double- and triple-occupancy apartments with a resident adviser.

Claire McCarthy, a 19-year-old Bowdoin sophomore who was walking home to her off-campus apartment Thursday, said the reported rape has rattled the student community.

“People are really concerned, especially if it is someone who didn’t have a personal relationship with the victim,” McCarthy said. “I think it’s making people question their personal safety off campus.”

McCarthy, who is from Seattle, said the Mayflower Apartments are usually considered one of the safer off-campus locations because families and faculty members live in the neighborhood.

“It’s definitely every mom’s worst nightmare to get a call that something like this happened,” she said.

Another student, 21-year-old Richard McAllister, said the college was very responsive after the reported rape, alerting the college community and increasing security. But McAllister, who recently transferred to Bowdoin, said the attack has many students worried.

“They are definitely talking on campus,” said McAllister, a sophomore from Switzerland.

This was the first time Bowdoin has sent out a “timely alert” email to students about a campus rape, because of potential danger to the community. In previously reported rapes, officials said, the victim either could identify his or her attacker or the rape was reported a “significant” time later and there was no immediate threat to the community.

Hagan said that Brunswick is generally a safe community, but he encouraged residents to lock their doors and keep their ground-story windows shut.

“We have received numerous complaints in recent months of people looking in windows, burglaries to residences,” he said.

Brunswick police also investigated a reported on-campus rape in May. In that case, former Bowdoin College student Logan Taylor was indicted in October on a felony charge of gross sexual assault after being accused of raping a female student in his dorm room.

Bowdoin College has about 1,730 students. The college reported six forcible sex offenses on campus in 2013, four in 2012 and seven in 2011.

By comparison, Bates College, which has 2,000 students, reported five on-campus rapes in 2014, with none on non-campus property. Bates had eight forcible sex offenses on campus in 2013, eight in 2012 and six in 2011.

The University of Southern Maine, which has roughly 7,000 students spread out over its three campuses, reported five rapes in 2014. It had four forcible sex assaults in 2013, 15 in 2012 and 10 in 2011.

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