We are approaching the end of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but the end of April should not signify closure of the conversation on sexual assault (SA). As a large college campus, the University of Oregon has and will likely continue to experience many reported and unreported cases of SA.
Fatima Roohi Pervaiz, the director of the Women’s Center at UO, said statistically, based on the size of UO, 3,250 students will experience sexual violence during the academic year. She characterized the first six weeks in particular as the Red Zone because of a heightened risk for SA.
“There are too many of us walking around the UO campus who have experienced harm and experienced trauma, and deserve to take our power back, deserve to have words to put with our experiences,” Pervaiz said.
An issue of this magnitude should not be limited to discussion in the month of April alone, it is a reality the UO community must acknowledge and seek to combat every day. Pervaiz said one of the most important elements of awareness on SA is education. A large part of this education is gaining knowledge of resources available to survivors of SA on the UO campus.
UO offers free counseling, health services and legal services to SA victims. Students can get a rape kit and an attorney for free through UO without any proof of insurance. All of these resources can be found under the Women’s Center on the UO website: https://dos.uoregon.edu/women. The UO also offers several education resources such as trainings and workshops for sexual violence prevention.
Sofia Rubalcava, a sophomore human physiology student at UO, said she was not aware of the resources available to her until after she experienced SA. Rubalcava said these services were extremely helpful in the legal process and the emotional healing process of her experience. The case has been addressed by the Eugene police department, and now Rubalcava said she is focused on healing and helping other survivors to become educated on what resources are available to them.
“Knowing there’s help and knowing there’s a team at UO that can aid you is really important,” Rubalcava said. “I’m pretty open about my SA experience because I wish someone had told me this stuff.”
Within education and awareness of SA, it is important to unlearn the narrative of how we typically depict victims and perpetrators. Lucy Partridge, a senior planning, public policy and management student at UO, said victim blaming is often an issue in conversations about SA.
“The only person that causes sexual assault is the abuser,” Partridge said. “It has nothing to do with what the victim was wearing, or if they were drinking or even if they knew that person. Acknowledging this and not portraying these stereotypes is really important in raising awareness that it can happen from anyone and to anyone.”
To expand the way we think of SA, the Take Back the Night event, hosted by the Women’s center on Thursday, April 27 at 6 p.m. at the EMU, will include speeches from victims of SA of all racial, sexual and gender identities.
“We’ve been spoon fed these ideas about what it is to be the perfect victim and who is believed, and that only people of certain genders experience sexual or domestic violence,” Pervaiz said. “People of all genders can and do experience sexual and domestic violence, and people of all genders can and do perpetrate sexual and domestic violence.”
Take Back the Night will also aim to educate on the different kinds of SA. Pervaiz said penetrative, violent rape is most commonly associated with the definition of SA, but SA can fall into a number of categories and each experience is as valid as the next.
Moving forward, raising awareness for SA can be as simple as having a conversation. Opening up the discussion on SA is how we begin to educate ourselves and our community and attempt to break down harmful stereotypes.
“We need to have these conversations, bring it up with your friends, your parents, your classmates,” Partridge said. “Being open and not shying away from the topic because it is difficult –– and addressing these stereotypes and talking about what resources are available to us is the best way to raise awareness.”
[Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct a statistic regarding predicted rates of sexual violence at the University of Oregon. The statistic applies throughout the year, not merely in the first six weeks, as originally stated.]
