Yep, quite a few universities and colleges have their own police departments. Occasionally, some of them are very good and invested in justice. But they are also very secretive pretty much across the board (I read studies on this while getting my criminology degree. I can try to dredge them up if any one is interested.)
So you have institutions of higher education with their own police force. And I remember from my own "welcome to college!" week that we were highly encouraged to come to the school's authorities if we had any problem. So you end up with a situation where there's a bunch of teens just out of high school. Away from their parents for the first time, a bit homsick or adrift, and they are told that the university is totally invested in their best interests. Occasionally someone is raped or assaulted and their first instinct would be to get help from the university that promised them they would keep them safe. It's not the police but the police seem intimidating or scary, while the university is, at least, a known quantity. And, hey, they have their police units right? They must know what they're doing! But in most cases that I have heard about from friends, the university would then proceed waffle back and forth, ask them what they had done to provoke the attack, and generally waste time. Presumably in hopes of making the crime go away (particularly if the accusation is against a prominent student.) This can be devastating to a victim's chances for justice, because assault is a very time sensitive issue to report. Some of my friends did end up going to the police after being rejected by their university but, by that time, all evidence beyond testimony would be gone. And they didn't want to go to trial, explain their attack all over again, and then almost certainly watch their rapist get acquitted.
(This kind of powder keg situation goes double for a place like Liberty University. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe trust in authority plays a big role in that strain of christian fundamentalism? And the university's depicts itself as a more godly place than its neighboring secular institutions. So I can see how young adults who deeply respect authority and distrust the community surrounding them might feel disinclined to go to police.)
ETA: Just to shed further light on college student behavior + authority I'll talk a little about my campus's health center. It was notoriously negligent and helpful. We all knew this. It was a common source of gossip and complaint. And yet we returned to it time and time again, even though our campus was just a few blocks away from the hospital! I think this behavior tended to derive from the same sort of underlying instincts and needs. When you're in trouble, you tend to seek out familiar places for help. You also want to believe that this institution you've poured time (and in some cases money) into would care about you deep down.
