There has been yet another sexual assault on campus, adding to the
increasing number of sexual assaults on campus within the past year.
Roughly a year ago the first of a series of sexual assault cases was reported on campus, and since then, at least four more have occurred.
The most recent one happened on campus after a Sigma Tau Gamma
fraternity party, where a UCA freshman reportedly offered to walk an intoxicated student to her dorm.
The student has since been arrested and charged with rape. From the increasing number of reported sexual assaults on UCA’s campus, it is clear that this is becoming an issue that UCA has yet to fully address.
It is even more of an issue because — according to the Bureau of Justice statistics — the majority of sexual assaults don’t even get reported.
There could be an alarming number of incidents that were never reported.
So as the issue gets worse, students are becoming increasingly alert, afraid
to walk across campus at night.
Now they even watch their backs when attending events sponsored by campus groups. It is also clear that whatever has been done to
decrease sexual assault is not working.
This campus needs a more serious program to fight sexual assaults;
students should be able to feel safe in the community where they attend classes, work and live.
This is not to hold any particular person or group responsible for these
incidents, because there are numerous different aspects that contribute to a
situation like this.
This is just to say that everyone on campus needs to work together to
ensure proper education on the topic and reach out to potential victims of
perpetrators.
The school should implement a mandatory sexual assault education program that discourages potential perpetrators and also teaches potential
victims how to protect themselves and avoid these situations.
If everyone is educated on the topic, young freshman men will learn
that making sexual advances towards an intoxicated young woman is
considered rape.
Young women will learn the risks involved in walking home alone with a
stranger from a party. With this education, the likelihood of these occurrences could decrease significantly.
As hard as it may be, it is imperative that victims of sexual assault report
these incidents. If more people reported these incidents, it would increase the likelihood that anyone who thinks that sexually advancing someone without their sober, right-minded consent is caught and corrected.
Preventing sexual assault is not just saying, “Let’s do as much as we can to
solve this one case and move on.” It is an ongoing education process that involves every single person on campus, from the president to the
custodial staff.
After all, some students travel miles away from home, some across the ocean, to live on or near UCA’s campus, and to think that any one of them has to cautiously walk across campus out of fear of being sexually assaulted should be a university’s worst nightmare.
