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May 26, 2004
How many Students does it take to wake up a college Campus?
I read an article in the University’s paper about rape on the campus. The headline talked about the second reported rape of the year, but really was about rape and what to do about it if you are a victim. One of the statements that shocked me was, “more than 1,000 University women are victims of an actual or an attempted rape in a single academic year. Approximately 170 men are victims of the same crime.”
So, there are more than 1,170 victims of rape or attempted rape in one academic year. I told a friend about this, who wanted to know how many total students there were on campus and what the percentage was of the total student population. Somehow that didn’t make me feel any better about the situation.
Rape is a sexual assault, an act of power, control and violence. How many is too many? There should not be any rapes on campus, in our communities or in our country. We have to look at the culture and ourselves to see what we are creating.
Most rapes are committed by people who the victim knows. We always worry about women walking alone at night, which is a valid fear, but even more troubling and fearful than a stranger is a person we know who might be harboring attitudes that would lead them to commit an act of sexual violence.
One rape is too many. If we open our eyes we can see it, and open our hearts we can know it. What will it take to change our campus and culture and society? Awareness and education is a good start.
Posted by carl1236 at May 26, 2004 10:15 PM | Attitude