It was bad enough that UK alerts were only sent out to students during ongoing instances of crime instead of after every crime.

According to a Jan. 15 Kernel article, UK spokeswoman Kathy Johnson said it was only necessary to alert students during such instances. For example, active shooters warranted an alert, but one-time assaults did not.

That isn’t good enough, but now it seems that repeated assaults don’t warrant an alert either. Last week, two assaults were reported on UK’s campus in the area of Woodland and Hilltop avenues, according to an April 9 Kernel article.

Both victims were punched and both described one suspect as an African-American male, approximately 6- to 6-foot-3 in height, about 210 pounds and wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt. Same place. Same time. Same suspect. Ongoing event. Yet UK did not think it was necessary to issue a UK Alert.

According to the article, UK Police did not think there would be any more assaults that night or that the attackers would be a continued threat to the university community. For that reason, UK Interim Police Chief Joe Monroe said, police did not issue a safety alert right away.

 On top of the campus assaults, Lexington Police Department spokeswoman Ann Gutierrez said these assaults resembled three separate incidents city police responded to the week before the UK attacks.

So not only were the assaults part of a continuing event on campus, they were part of an even wider assault streak in Lexington.

By not informing students of the attacks immediately, UK not only put students in danger but they did not follow through on their promise to report ongoing events.

Fortunately, there have been no more assaults linked to the two assaults last week. However, UK had no way of knowing this and should have issued an alert immediately, warning students of the potential danger on campus.

In the future, UK Alert cannot take a gamble with student safety, and they must follow through on their promises. There is too much at stake to do otherwise.