The University of Iowa’s asking for help solving an assault on campus over the weekend. Spokesman Duane Papke, associate director in the university’s public-safety department, says a 20-year-old man with a female companion was attacked early Sunday morning outside Daum Hall, a student residence.The young man, who’s not a student, was hit over the head with a beer bottle, then when he fell to the ground was kicked in the head and suffered serious injuries. Papke says there were somewhere from 7 to ten assailants involved, and witnesses say they left the scene of the attack and walked off northward across campus. The witnesses weren’t able to give descriptions of any of the attackers. Papke says while the university has its share of disturbances, campus cops seldom are required to deal with them. Papke says they don’t deny the university sees an occasional fight, but they’re not as brutal as this case, and typically a scuffle’s over so quickly that the parties are gone by the time authorities arrive. Papke says the U-of-I’s department of public safety typically cooperates with other law-enforcement agencies. Investigators and officers work with Iowa City and Coralville police, Johnson County sheriff’s department, even the state patrol when it has officers in the area. The University’s posted notices in dormitories asking for students who may have witnessed the assault to contact them with information.
