On a frigid day last November, I sat in the University Health Center for about eight hours straight listening to students read accounts of women and men on the campus who have been sexually assaulted. As more stories were presented, each one seemed more gruesome than the one before: a sorority member who was date-raped and turned to drug use and bulimia; a fraternity member who witnessed his frat brothers ignore claims of sexual assault in their group, continuously shouting the oh-so-popular “bros before hoes” phrase to erase the problem from their minds; a stellar college student who was told by her female peers that she should “be proud” she was raped by a certain guy (because he happened to be “way out of her league”).

One in four college women report surviving rape, and 28 women in the United States are raped every hour, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An intensive Center for Public Integrity investigation revealed that students who were responsible for alleged sexual assaults on college campuses “can face little or no consequences for their acts.” Too often, rapists unfairly escape facing punishment and receive little more than a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, victims of rape and sexual assault live the rest of their lives scarred by the trauma of their experience – and rarely receive justice.

Why are rape and sexual assault such important issues to bring up now? April marks Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but you most likely weren’t aware. That’s the problem.

Everyone claims they care about sexual assault. It’s obviously a serious topic, so why wouldn’t they? But how many people on this campus actually care about preventing it from happening, rather than sitting back, doing nothing and claiming that they care about the well-being of their peers?

This class I took about five months ago, part of the Sexual Assault Response and Prevention Program, had about 30 female and five male students. Of the females, most only took the class because they were required to do so in order to maintain membership in their sororities. All five male students were required to take the course for their fraternity memberships.

In the midst of ongoing sexual assaults that occur during college, as well as the recent accusations of sexual and physical abuse from the university’s faculty, youth-oriented sexual health groups should have a higher focus on trying to engage students to talk about sexual assault. Who should they try to market to the most? Men.

SARPP and other organizations are not going to get anywhere by tabling in front of the Stamp Student Union with brochures and candy. They won’t do any good by not marketing their violence intervention classes to students of both genders, either. It seems as if people assume rape is always viewed from a female lens, and men are afraid to speak out against rape because it’s a “women’s issue.”

Recently, MenCanStopRape.org started a marketing campaign to engage young men to look out for victims of rape and sexual assault. The website’s posters cleverly suggest how men can prevent rape but still maintain their masculine identity by being someone who “takes a stand” against sexual violence.

It’s these efforts, like trying to convince a demographic they are equally responsible for preventing rape, that actually make a difference. To students on the campus, April is just like any other month. But if people start actively caring about violence intervention, Sexual Assault Awareness Month will become a living period of activism and engagement, not just a month where we supposedly care about those broken by rape, violence and hatred.

Caroline Carlson is a freshman government and politics and marketing major. She can be reached at carlson@umdbk.com.