This past August, Loyola hired former New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Ronal Serpas as a tenured professor of criminal justice. His employment at our university was met with contempt due to Loyola’s recent widespread layoffs and budget cuts.

Now, in light of the shocking reports released by New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux, we should be outraged that Loyola would hire a man whose carelessness allowed 1,111 sex crimes to go uninvestigated and now refuses to take responsibility.

The audit, released Nov. 12, investigated five Special Victims Section officers — roughly one-third of the detectives in that department.

It found that these five detectives did not write investigative reports for 86 percent of the 1,290 cases they were collectively assigned over a period of three years.

In other words, the NOPD essentially ignored hundreds of forcible rape, sexual assault and child abuse complaints under the supervision of Ronal Serpas.

Serpas claims to have been unaware of the extent of these problems, but that seems incredibly difficult to believe. Considering his nine-page response to the Inspector General’s performance audit back in May, which addressed the NOPD’s misclassification of forcible rape cases, the issue certainly must have been brought to his attention.

In spite of the incriminating report, he defended his leadership: “In the four years I was chief, the number of sexual assaults reported increased by 60 percent compared to the four years before… So I think we were clear on our message, obviously, by the increase in reports, that we want the facts,” Serpas said.

Despite this upsurge in reported rapes, Quatrevaux’s findings show that despicable trends continued through Serpas’ time as superintendent. There is no disputing that sexual assault and child abuse complaints were misclassified at alarming rates, resulting in altered crime statistics and improper investigations.

As I approach graduation in May, I am concerned that I will look back in scorn at my alma mater.

Loyola is a school that prides itself on values, including justice, service and a concern for the oppressed. By hiring the shamefully irresponsible Ronal Serpas, Loyola turned its back on the values that it imposes on its students. Ronal Serpas’ position as police chief contributed to the prevalence of danger in our community.

Because of his inability to effectively carry out his role as representative, leader and supervisor of the NOPD, over one thousand women and children’s voices have been silenced. The fact that this man is walking our halls, enjoying a fat salary and sitting pretty in his claimed ignorance is repulsive.

It is important that the student body be aware of this and essential that we do something about it — starting with demanding an explanation from our beloved university.

To get further involved, I suggest joining the Facebook group, “Silent March for the 1,111,” and joining in the march and rally on Saturday, Dec. 13 at 10:00 a.m. I look forward to seeing you there.