Students Should Speak Up by Benedictine University blogger Karly

It is a scary topic. Most people feel uncomfortable when it is brought up but the truth of the matter is it has to be talked about. College students rarely discuss the issue of sexual assaults on campuses. Being a college student myself, I will admit that it is a very difficult topic to grasp because the reality is that unfortunate incidents of sexual assaults do happen on college campuses. However, most of us do not realize that it is really up to us to make a difference to prevent assaults from happening in the future. Here are a few ways that college students can get involved to help prevent sexual assaults on campus.

Increase male participation- In my personal opinion I feel that more girls than guys at colleges are aware of the topic of sexual assaults and how to prevent them from happening. If more boys were aware of the outcomes that assaults cause on the victims I feel that they will hopefully get more involved and spread the word of awareness.

Don’t get involved with the wrong people- We can only do so much to try and prevent sexual assaults from happening at college, but unfortunately it still does happen so the most important thing to do is to be smart and don’t make bad choices or put yourself into sticky situations and hopefully this wil be the biggest aspect in preventing sexual assault.

Be more than a Bystander - Don’t be afraid to speak up. I know that it can be really hard if someone that you are close to or are friends with is a victim of sexual assault but in the long run it will benefit them if you SPEAK UP and tell someone that can do something about it so that it does not happen again.

If the unfortunate incident of a sexual assault occurs on a college campus students should make the victim feel comfortable, giving them a safe environment.  

Increasing Rape Awareness on College Campuses

            When I was a student on campus it seemed like the topic of rape was something that was rarely addressed.  Awareness events such as “Take Back the Night” and “The Vagina Monologues” were available to partake and participate in.  It seemed that formal addressing of rape culture happened at these events and sometimes were touch on in elective classes.  

In my own social circles the girls on my dorm floor promised to never leave a party without the girls we came with.  It certainly was not formal but it was our way of looking out for one another.  Are plan worked and we felt like we could trust each other.

Campuses across the nation may be looking at programs to educate all incoming freshmen on rape prevention.  While I do not think this is a bad idea, I feel as though students tend to become more engaged when they are approached by their peers.  I feel as if more student groups, fraternities, and sororities, on campus were to share the facts about rape on college campuses it may normalize the conversation.  This approach may reach more students than another mandatory lecture on what to avoid on campus.

 

Sometimes people including administrative heads want to turn a blind eye on what is actually happening on campus.  Even the average student may have a hard time talking about rape in a casual conversation.  An informed student may become one less rape survivor.  If the facts are available through peer to peer interaction you turn the topic into something that is no longer taboo.  Rape culture is not something that should be addressed a couple times a year, it should be something that we are talking and raising awareness about on college campuses and in society. 

What the heck is Teal Dot? by blogger Allisyn Ruttle from Pitzer College

As a consortium of 5 colleges, the Claremont Colleges is a fairly large community, with a large array of diverse clubs and student organizations. I am a member of a few of them, though I am not president of any. My roommate is, however, and she received an email saying that because she is a leader of an organization that she is required to go through Teal Dot training. We had no idea what that is and it has never had a presence on campus before. So, we looked it up on the Internet. We realized that this organization is only present at the Claremont Colleges. The description read:

Teal Dot is a bystander engagement program at the 5C's designed to reduce power-based personal violence, like sexual assault, partner violence, stalking,etc., in our community. We are making a difference, one teal dot at a time.

What this means is that every single person that is a registered leader of an on-campus club is required to forego this training, learning how to use their leadership to prevent power-based violence in all capacities in the context of their organizations. Before researching, I had never known that “power-based violence” was an existing concept, an all-encompassing term that, at the same time, does not over-generalize. As someone who has not yet received training, I don’t know what skills are included in teal dot training or how it is different from survivor support training. It seems to be a brand new presence on campus, and I am very much looking forward to it becoming more prominent and sought after. I hope to see organizations like this spreading to other college campuses across the nation. If every single student organization nationally had at least one person trained to spread awareness and prevent power-based violence, imagine the changes our generation could make.

For more information about Teal Dot’s presence on the Claremont Colleges’ campuses, visit https://pomona.collegiatelink.net/organization/tealdot

The Next generation -promoting anti- rape culture? by blogger Veronica from Southern New Hampshire University

With the search to end the existence of rape jokes and a culture of gamers that use sex as a premise to encourage assaults, there is an expansive light of hope for colleges to carry the torch in making anti- rape culture not a thing of the past but a big transformation for the millenniums. With the courageous plight of women echoing the words of feminist past, raising money through charities on campuses that deal with encouraging high security, more day classes, a greater impression of female student attendance and the multiple promotions of self defense classes, There are wiser decisions made by the student bodies to promote safety and to make studying and living on campus a more enriching experience.

In the media, there are college students that factor the obsession of sex and use the importance of celebrity as a secretive force in how they live their lives .By making promiscuous celebrities their most popular role models, the result being more promiscuous teenagers and college students. Many young college students easily see the media as an enabler and a promoter of evil and hate. In the end, the media can stop promoting hate of women and stop the future rape culture. By using inspirational stories of rape survivors and inspire the next generation to be equal to their male counterparts.

Even television and movies have used women as a force to be reckoned with, such as the character of Precious in the movie precious based on the novel “Push” by sapphire. It first ignited a storm of controversy but mainly told the story of a rape victim and abused victim. This movie like those that have retold the story from time to time about support for rape victims is the sign that the anti- rape culture is alive and well. Precious was unlike any other rape victim and her story courageously made the rape culture a sad igniter of hate.

Anti-rape culture can be demonstrated on college campuses today, with the promotion of self defense, there is an opening of the door to improvement and change. In fact, at Southern New Hampshire University there were free self defense classes given to female students in preventing assaults from occurring. With the attendance of these classes, the more female students can be educated in the prevention of rape and bigotry.

In any form, the anti-rape culture can exist. If there is more educational resources online, in print and on campuses, even teachers can do their part by lecturing on violence and hate towards women of all colors and all ages. With this, then the Anti-rape culture movement might begin in any classroom and lecture hall. The Millenniums will be the first generations to come to deliver the message against rape culture.