Sexual assault awareness kicks off with One in Four performance

RACHEL KINGSTROM

Staff Writer

This week is Sexual Assault Awareness Week. The purpose of the week is to raise awareness of sexual assault on campus and to encourage students to report incidents as they occur. Several events will take place throughout the week to get students involved and to educate them about the risks of sexual assault.

Trish Chase is the chair of the Sexual Assault Awareness task force, which also includes Judy Scott, director of Public Relations, Carol Bender, professor of English, Murray Borrello, instructor of Geology, and Nicholas Dixon, associate pro-fessor of philosophy. “There may be a problem that hasn’t made its way to the surface and the school isn’t aware of it,” Chase said. “We need to know if there is a problem so that it can be addressed.”

The main point that the task force stresses is education. “Part of our job is to educate the campus about the risks of sexual assault,” Borrello said. “We want to make people aware, and to be sure they know what to do if they are a victim or know someone who is a victim.”

Yesterday, February 2nd the group One in Four spoke for resident assisants and in Catherine Fobes Sociology 101 class, as well as at 7pm in the Heritage Center, and gave a presentation about sexual assault. Main points of their talk was that 99% of rapes that happen are done by men, 90% of the victims are women and 85% of these rapes are done by well known, trusted members of the community, also known as "the nice guy". The group stressed that if a victim comes to talk to you that believing and accepting that they are more than likely telling the truth are key points to remember, as the FBI reported that only 4-6% or rape reports are false, and an even less percentage than that are rapes down by a person known to the victim.

“The name [One in Four] comes from the statistic that 1 in 4 women will be victim of sexual abuse per year,” Borrello added. “We want to make sure that statistic is not reflected on campus.” The group first got started when they were students at Central Michigan University and they walked across the United States to raise awareness about the issue. Since then, they have been giving presentations at colleges and universities across the nation.

On Wednesday, February 4, there will be an open forum held at 7 p.m. in Jones Auditorium. It will serve as a follow-up to Monday’s presentation. Nick Dixon, Diane Crites, Rev. Christine Vogel, Interfraternity Council Pesident Jeff Snow (04) and Panhellenic Council representative Robyn Paige (04) will make up the panel that will field students’ comments and questions. They will be discussing what students and faculty can do to raise awareness of the issue, and what they can do to handle problems with sexual assault that occur on campus.

“I’m hoping that this will open up the climate on campus, and [that it will] encourage students to report the incidents and get help more often,” Chase added. “These are issues that have long needed to be discussed.”

On Thursday, February 5, Bob Helcher, an instructor at Alma Tai-kwando, will teach a self-defense workshop at the Stone Center for Recreation. The class will be held at 3:30 pm. Helcher is a respected instructor in the area. “He is really good; phenomenal,” Borrello added.

The task force hopes to get a lot of participation from students in the various events. “Awareness is the operable word here,” Scott said. “We hope that students learn what sexual assault entails, so that we can prevent it from happening on campus.” The week’s events will give students and faculty the opportunity to come together to discuss this issue, bring to light any problems of sexual assault that are occurring, and to prevent future cases from happening.

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