In just these past two weeks on the University of Wisconsin campus, two sexual assaults took place within a one mile radius and 72 hours of each other. Each of these victims, 21-year-old females, were walking home alone at night when both were sexually assaulted.
For those who received a campus alert email or heard about it on the news the next day, many may have just shrugged it off as typical – another female girl sexually assaulted by a male during the late night hours at night. But there is nothing typical about this. These alerts continue to pop up, and sexual assaults continue to be a problem, not just at Madison, but everywhere. Why is that?
As a student who lives on campus and close to where both of these assaults took place, I feel there needs to be a rise in awareness of sexual assaults. One in five women will be sexually assaulted on a college campus, odds that are not in a girl’s favor. These types of statistics are alarming and need to finally be appropriately addressed, not just at this university but by society as a whole.
During this past winter at UW, a Badger football recruit raped a female freshman in her dorm room. The incident turned into a media frenzy when he was sentenced last month. In fact, the story was so huge it made it onto ESPN’s college football announcements.
This incident managed to gain national attention out of hundreds that occur each year at universities. Does this mean that it is going to take the involvement of potential football stars to call attention to these horrible situations? The reality of this is all too apparent. More people tuned in on the feature about a football player accused of rape rather than the story of a young woman sexually assaulted on a college campus. Instead, the victim was criticized on social media for ruining her rapist’s shot to make it big. This is an outrageous and disturbing mentality, one that can be fought with education on sexual assault that calls attention to the problem of victim blaming.
As a university we have options such as Safe Walk where you can call (608) 262-5000 at any time of the night, and two students will come to meet you and walk you safely home. However, the university could do so much more, such as re-implementing the shuttle program, which would pick up students from libraries late at night when the buses stop running, or keep libraries open longer (College Library is the only one open 24 hours), in addition to better educating the student body.
Education is key. Proper information and understanding can help a person to learn and realize that sexual assault stands for something bigger than two words. That is what we need more of.
School has barely started and multiple disturbances have already taken place. After hearing about these incidents it comes to no surprise that my dad wants me to walk around with mace in my purse. Fear is instilled in parents’ minds and justly so. However, when is it going to be perfectly normal to not have these fears or the need to carry around pepper spray?
Shannon Skebba ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in international studies with a certificate in global health.
