"Awareness is Key" by blogger Allisyn Ruttle from Pitzer College

Something happened on my campus this semester. Something created a buzz that’s still sending us into a frame of mind never before seen.

We all received our first sexual assault notification email from administration a few months back. Everyone talked about it. It gave no explicit detail, just simply when and where and guidelines for how to prevent it in the future. We were all surprised. Why hadn’t we been notified of these situations before? Why now?

The emails kept coming. Notifications of sexual violence came flooding into my inbox. Now, we see at least 1 per weekend, if not 2-3.

Students became passionately outraged, posing various, impulsive questions:

“Why are there so many sexual assaults happening on campus now?”

“Who is responsible? Students? People in the community?”

“What about our campus culture has changed to invite such behavior on such a regular basis?”

Here is the thing, though. It took me just as long as everyone else to see through my own concern to reach the harsh truth. These emails don’t indicate a sudden burst of sexually violent activity. Cases have been that frequent all along, and it used to be so easy to blind ourselves from the truth. Now that administration is making all of us aware, we can’t help but become actively concerned. We can’t help but stand up and fight.

The results of the awareness-spreading emails, as sad as they are to read, have been astonishing. Three of the five Claremont Colleges now have legitimate advocate groups in support of survivors, and they all meet more often than they ever have before. Initiatives like the growing “Yes Means Yes” campaign are making way, and the general student body is excited to engage in the support of survivors and prevention of sexual violence on the campus they call home.

Survivors themselves have also been affected by the rise of awareness. Discussions and support groups have reached a pinnacle in attendance. They feel more proactive with reporting their cases, because they know the powers that be are taking some sort of initiative to do something about it, even if it is just a simple email with no detail.  For the first time, something is being done to encourage survivors to move forward, and I could not be more proud of my campus.