It’s easy to get caught up in the daily hustle of being a student, especially on campus, where student programs and athletics keep our calendars busy on top of deadlines and exams. What tends to get lost in the shuffle is the sexual violence that occurs behind closed doors all over campus against our classmates, neighbors, teammates and friends. These violent assaults are hard to detect as our campus continues to grow, yet our peers’ efforts to engage people in conversations about sexual violence have significantly raised awareness of the problem that plagues universities across the nation. Since 1975, Take Back the Night has had success in breaking the silence and empowering survivors to speak out against sexual violence. As our campus community wraps up this year’s Sexual Violence Prevention Week, it is crucial that we join hands as a community and continue to address sexual violence through participation in prevention efforts.
Sexual assault, attempted or completed, is still sexual assault. One in four women on a college campus is a survivor of a sexual assault, which, statistically speaking, encompasses 2,976 women on our campus alone. As the University of Oregon Fraternity and Sorority Life accounts for 13 percent of the student body, the organizations and members of our community have partnered with those fighting against sexual violence to actively prevent these acts within the University and the greater Eugene community.
Committed to our core values of brotherhood and sisterhood, members of our community strive daily to meet the challenges of being leaders by keeping each other accountable for our actions. Furthermore, members recognize that education is a way of prevention. Many in our community actively seek out involvement through opportunities like hosting in-house sexual awareness programs through Sexual Wellness Advocacy Team, serving on the Sorority Sexual Wellness Committee and spearheading the Peer Health Educators’ “Be That Guy” campaign, which wraps up this week. In collaboration with the ASUO Women’s Center and Planned Parenthood, fraternities and sororities also gathered to sponsor a sexual wellness panel discussion and a self-defense course as a precursor to Sexual Violence Prevention Week.
As students and organizations such as the LGBTQA, the ASUO Men’s Center, Sexual Assault Support Services, Fraternity and Sorority Life, the ASUO Women’s Center and many more step aside from the daily hustle to recognize, prevent and educate others about the violence that results from sexual assault, we strongly urge everyone to actively participate in this week’s events. Make the University of Oregon a better and safer community! Break the Cycle! Take Back the Night! Be That Guy!
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