CONTRIBUTED BY REBECCA JOHNSON

In the recent weeks, there has been an outpouring of conversation around sexual assault and community safety.  Sexual assault is a problem on every college and university, including Winona State.  As WSU is a community of learners, we need to understand that while stranger assault is a serious crime, assault by an acquaintance is a much greater danger on college campuses.

According to the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault, 1 in 5 women will be sexually assaulted while in college, and most of these assaults (92%) will occur from an acquaintance or someone they know.  The CDC reports that stranger sexual assault accounts for under 10 percent of all assaults reported.

While the Winona community has recently been made aware of 3 reported stranger assaults, I encourage everyone to acknowledge that many more assaults are taking place and are not being reported.  Victims and/or survivors need to know that they are never to blame for an assault, no matter who the perpetrator is.  WSU’s RE Initiative offers confidential advocacy for victims and survivors at 507-457-5610.

In order to make our campus safer, it is important that we accurately address the scope of the problem of sexual violence on college campuses by acknowledging that the vast majority of assaults are not perpetrated by strangers—but by people we know. Focusing only on stranger assault skews public perception of how to prevent sexual violence.

I want to commend Elliot Peck for being a positive bystander and reacting to the stranger assaults in our community by starting the SAS facebook page. WSU’s new PACT program educates students to be effective bystanders who have the tools to prevent violence before it occurs.

For those interested in learning how to reduce sexual assault on campus, please contact the Gender-Based Violence Graduate Assistant at [email protected].