Another woman was assaulted over the weekend. It very easily could have been you.

Another sexual assault. Like many others, it happened near campus — this time it was Henry Street. Perhaps the story doesn’t stick out in your mind because they’re all starting to sound the same: “A young woman was attacked early Saturday or Sunday morning.” Every time you open the newspaper, every morning you turn on the news, another story of a violent attack is waiting to start your day.

Madison is sick. It has caught a nasty virus, and we need to get out the chicken soup and take it down. These assaults need to stop, and that’s not going to happen unless we turn some things around.

Many of us criticize campus police for heavily policing football games and good-natured drunks on State Street, instead of “getting out there” and catching the bad guys. While the Madison Police Department’s paddy wagon drives off on Saturday nights with handcuffed cases of public urination and intoxication, young men are getting pistol-whipped on Gilman Street and young women are facing rapes and muggings over on Mound Street.

Every week, one can log on to the Herald’s “Shout-Outs” page and find a dozen angry remarks about the MPD’s lack of enforcement, laziness or outright vendetta against the student population carried out over the weekend. Or Mondays in lecture — “Dude, my buddy totally got a drinking ticket this weekend. Don’t the pigs have anything better to do?” Regardless of whether these accusations are legitimate, finger pointing is absolutely not the way to solve the problem.

How many of those “good-natured drunks” turn into bad-natured, hooded figures in an alleyway after one more beer? It’s unfortunate to have to fine someone $300 because they couldn’t wait in the bathroom line, and he probably won’t be happy about it. Who is to say, however, that the MPD isn’t already preventing countless more assaults by apprehending the guy who’s too drunk to hold it in? We might never know, but personally, I’d rather keep it that way.

Instead of criticizing them, the students and residents of Madison need to be encouraging and working with the police of Madison. What lies at stake is too precious, and the consequences too serious, to leave ourselves at odds with the people who are here to protect us.

We also need to get crucial information out to students and residents in the immediate campus area. Already well-established programs, such as PAVE, have life-saving workshops and information that many students don’t even know exist. We need to take some personal responsibility if we’re going to nip this virus in the bud.

Every woman and most men have been told ad nauseum to never walk anywhere late at night by themselves — it’s common sense. When an attack occurring over the weekend appears in the paper, upon seeing that it happened at 2:10 a.m. most are prone to say “What the hell was she doing walking alone at two in the morning? Of course she was attacked!”

But how about that time, just that one time, that you were only two blocks away from home? You’ll be fine, you told your friends, you live just down the street. Or how about the time you didn’t feel like waiting for your friend to finish talking to that awkward guy at a bar and headed home out of frustratio? Or even when you left the library by yourself at 1:30 because you were right on campus and there were a lot of people around? “Just that one time” is all it takes.

There is clearly a safety issue creeping up around campus. Increased attacks, muggings and sexual assaults are giving students reason to go home a little bit earlier, walk a little faster and even keep their hands on a can of pepper spray.

Blaming the police for the actions of a violent, disturbed individual, however, is not going to solve this problem. And our current course of action doesn’t seem to be working out too well either. There is too much ignorance about personal safety and sexual assaults on campus.

We need to take on this responsibility as well — working with the police, educating ourselves and others, reporting suspicious events and most importantly never letting ourselves or a friend walk alone at night. Every student on this campus and — most critically — every woman on this campus should familiarize themselves with programs like PAVE, UW Campus Safety and even UW Health Services. Don’t let it wait, students, because education and action are the only things standing between you and the next headline.

Laura Brennan ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in communicative disorders.