HARTFORD -- On Wednesday, Trinity College held a forum for students, faculty and staff to discuss safety concerns after an attack by teens who crashed an on-campus party left several students with injuries.
At around 10:45 p.m. Saturday night, 20-25 teenagers not from the college entered a fraternity party on the grounds near St. Anthony Hall. According to officials, when students at the event asked the group to leave, several Trinity students were assaulted by the teens.
The college said students were injured but not hospitalized but one student said of the five injured, one had two fractures to his cheekbone and a severe concussion, while others suffered black eyes, a sprained ankle, and concussions. Video footage of the assault was shared with Hartford police as they investigate the attack.
Immediately after the incident, Trinity increased security on campus for the remaining weeks of the semester. They also scheduled Wednesday's campus forum to discuss safety concerns.
"An incident like this late at night is something that we have to look at and figure out how can we work toward prevention form that happening again. So what we're doing now, what we're learning from this is important," said Joseph DiChristina, Vice President for Student Affairs at Trinity College.
He said, "People want to feel safe when they're here learning and parents expect for us to create a safe environment, so we have to be attentive to this."
Around 25 people attended the forum expressing their concerns, and DiChristina said he's fielded phone calls and e-mails about this incident as well.
Trinity will look over its security measures over the summer months, with this incident in mind, to determine if any additional measures need to be put in place for the fall.
"I believe this summer when we review that and make sure that we have the right deployment of people and the correct spaces here around campus, and for me to communicate that back out to the families will show that obviously this is a high priority for us and that we are putting our resources where we need to for safety," said DiChristina.
Students FOX61 spoke with on campus Wednesday say they feel safe on campus and consider this fight a one time incident.
Senior Seth Browner said, "I don't think it's something that should make Trinity abandon its efforts to reach out to the local community."
He added, "It's not enough to make me scared of the neighborhood or scared of the city."
"I personally have never felt unsafe," said Senior Megan Tighe.
She said, "I think this was a fluke incident and I don't think that it should be a thing that deters people from coming to Trinity."