Even one incident of rape or sexual assault on this campus, or anywhere for that matter, is a serious problem worthy of real concern, and when discussing this issue it is very difficult to even consider positive aspects of such a situation. With that said, my optimistic side views the increase in reports made to the Victim Advocate Office in the past year as a positive sign.
As numerous studies have shown and The Diamondback’s Sept. 1 article, “Reporting of Sex Offenses Triples” points out, sexual assault is a problem on college campuses all over the country, but the majority of them go unreported. In our case, the recent increase in reports can be a testament to the hard work of the university community to increase awareness of sexual assault.
Here at the university, there are a plethora of groups working to combat sexual assault: the Victim Advocate Office, run by Cortney Fisher; Student Advocates For Education about Rape, run by Mollie Monahan; Men Ending Rape, run by Keith Edwards; and the student-driven Terps Against Sexual Assault. The obvious goal of all these groups is to have no rapes, reported or not, occur at the university. However, with such a daunting task, a complementary goal is to bring the issue of sexual assault to the forefront of students’ minds along with other commonly recognized issues like depression or anorexia.
But it seems many students are either ignoring the issue of sexual assault or briefly considering it and moving on, believing it to be an issue that does not concern them. Not only are these approaches woefully wrong, they are devastating because the first step in tackling any issue is increasing awareness. And by doing so, with increased resources for victims and programs to enhance campus knowledge, the result often is, as we see here, a spike in reports. Only after this awareness can the desired decrease in actual occurrences come.
I feel these groups deserve a pat on the back and a few words of encouragement for their work in the past few years in a difficult and often ignored field. Further, I pray that this increase in reports is a result of the consistent dialogue these groups are working to maintain, because potential predators are more aware of what actually constitutes sexual assault and because victims are slowly becoming more and more comfortable seeking the help that they deserve and that the victim advocate offers.
Still, with reports rising, statistics such as “1 in 4 college women have been or will be the victims of rape or attempted rape” are evidence that this issue clearly deserves more attention. I would hope these statistics serve as a call to action for the student body. Our campus has groups that are always fighting the issues that face college students on a daily basis, but they can only go as far as students will drive them.
Check out Terps Against Sexual Assault or go to the Stamp Student Union’s website, www.stamp.umd.edu, and access the list of campus action groups for one that strikes your interest. If the increase in women seeking help from the Victim Advocate is any sign, it’s clear our efforts as concerned students can make a difference.
J. Burke Miller is the vice president of external affairs for the Interfraternity Council. He can be reached at jburkemiller@gmail.com.
