The University of Connecticut's "rape trail" may be a part of student lore, but it should not be celebrated, let alone openly cheered for at a homecoming week concert.

The Huffington Post reported UConn students went wild with applause when Cal Shapiro, part of the music duo Timeflies mentioned the campus' "rape trail." He apparently announced a school themed freestyle rap and made the reference early on.

"How could they shut down Carriage, and what you know, I never save it, we gonna bring it back like the m-----f--kin' rape trail," the line went.

The trail is a walkway some three-quarters of a mile long and although it is well lit, the trail is secluded from campus. It leads to Celeron Square, an off-campus apartment building. The only exits are at either end of the trail, and yes, it has earned its nickname.

The Hartford Courant reported 13 years ago that the trail only had "rumors" and "never" seen an actual rape, according to UConn students and administrators.

"It probably got its name because it's dark and it's scary,'' one student said at the time.

Last year, UConn's student run and funded television station aired a sketch comedy video that was not taken to be too funny. In the video, a woman runs screaming down the trail away from a potential rapist and towards a blue light emergency phone. During the exchange, the emergency responder called her a myriad of insulting names and did not help her while the attacker caught up, choked her out and left.

Before that video was released, one student detailed her very real sexual assault on the trail during spring weekend, 2008. She wrote a first-person account in the Daily Campus detailing how she was waiting for a friend to pick her up when someone approached her, grabbed her and began dry humping her. When he would not stop, she said she knocked him over, straddled him and tried to get him to stop. The attacker broke free and ran away, but by then, a group of male students had gathered, taunting her and even furthering the assault.

Brian Zahn, a UConn graduate, expressed his disappoint at the homecoming concert crowd in a blog post.

"If students were truly concerned about the possibility of rapists hiding behind the trees, there would not be cheers. There would be dead silence. Instead, the "rape trail" has been embraced as part of UConn's culture, a jokey reference to the things that make us Huskies. Sexual assaults have occurred on the trail. This is something students vocally supported by cheering," he wrote. "The verse was supposedly performed in good humor, but I wonder when we, as UConn students and alumni, began to view sexual assault as a punchline, and not as a serious problem."

University president Susan Herbst released a statement Tuesday night condemning the behavior as well.

"The sentiment expressed by some attendees at this event in no way represents the mindset or culture of the UConn student body as a whole. Those who cheered at a reference to sexual assault may believe they were being ironic or humorous in some way. They did not succeed. Far from it, and regardless of intent, it has been interpreted by some as a display of indifference to the issue of sexual assault and to victims of sexual violence," she wrote."

"Many engaged students at UConn are deeply involved in sexual assault prevention, and I am very proud of these leaders. They are among so many thoughtful students who devote their time and effort to philanthropy, to improving our institution, and, most of all, to one another."