SGA, administration should promote education on sexual assaults

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

Mandatory classes are often a drag. For students, they can be uninteresting, unmotivating and a perceived waste of time. For instructors, they’re equally draining, as some students slumber and never connect with the material.

But students at the University of Maryland used their voice to implement one mandatory class for all students that is sure to be useful: sexual assault education classes.

The student-written proposal was approved by the executive committee of their University Senate two weeks ago and mandates sexual assault education for their undergraduate students.

VCU should be praised for their devotion to student health and security. In addition to the Wellness Center, we have University Counseling Services and a Sexual Assault Response Team operating through the VCU Police.

The resources for support and prevention are available to students. If they’re being underutilized, then the university will need to better tout and advertise them.

But whether they’re being used or not, it’s necessary for the university to wield those resources to educate the student body, even if that means opening them up to the surrounding area or working in conjunction with the city of Richmond’s resource centers.

The annual VCU campus security report, which is available on the VCU Police website, reported that in 2011 there were three forcible sexual offenses on the Monroe Park campus, including one that happened in an on-campus residential facility. Another three were reported on the MCV campus. Between the two campuses, six forcible sexual offenses occurred on public property.

These instances, while not high given that the university has a population of more than 30,000 students, are tragic and alarming.

It shows us that we can and must do better.

Because of the confidentiality and sensitivity of the issue, as well as disparities in reporting, it’s important that we also recognize that those numbers don’t tell the full story. It’s difficult to know exactly how many students are victims of sexual assaults.

That being said, the collegiate environment makes it necessary for students to be educated on the topic. Not everyone learns about sexual assaults and how to deter, address and prevent them in high school. A twenty-minute skit and an hour-long presentation during Welcome Week shouldn’t be a student’s only experience with the subject.

Offering a course to students would encourage other schools to do the same and help spread the message about sexual violence. The American Association of University Women estimates that 95 percent of sexual assaults are unreported and 42 percent of college females who are raped tell no one about the assault.

No matter how big or small statistics say the issue is at VCU, the reality of the situation is that national epidemics command our attention and our action.

The details for the University of Maryland’s education program haven’t been discussed yet, but to see students taking the initiative in concern of the lives of others is heartening. Our own student government should look into the matter and explore a similar program’s feasibility if the university doesn’t wish to offer a course exclusively for the subject.

With issues like these, it’s better to act before it’s too late. Both the administration and student government association have a responsibility to students, whether that responsibility be purely academic or general life education.