April 11 was recently named Sexual Assault Awareness Day by the mayor’s office, making a great gesture to combat sexual misconduct in the community. On April 11, sexual assault survivor Aly Raisman spoke at the University with gallantry, sharing her experiences and encouraging other women to share their tribulations as well.
In recent years, the University has reported declining numbers of sexual assault. In 2016, only eight forcible sex offenses were reported, an improvement from years before. The concern remains prominent, as even one sexual assault is too many.
The commercialized sports entity and the associated party life are the main causes for sexual assault at the University currently. Seven of the last 12 rapes reported on campus occurred at football games, two at baseball games and another two at basketball games.
Still, the University’s self praise for ostensibly low sexual assault numbers are ignoble. One in five college women are sexually assaulted and the University’s reported numbers seem out of the realm of possibility. LSUPD spokesperson Lt. Kevin Scott stated, “If you surveyed 100 girls, or 1,000 female students on LSU’s campus, will you really see one in five that say they’ve been sexually assaulted, if they’re really being honest? Is that accurate? I mean, look at the numbers.”
Scott’s statements are facetious and could be a legitimate reason why women underreport rapes. Research conducted by Texas A&M researcher Jason Lindo found reported rapes by woman between the ages of 17 to 24 increase by 28 percent during Division I college football games.
This is very alarming when you account for the 68 percent of rapes that are not reported to police. More than 90 percent of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report assaults they’ve suffered. People who share the same philosophies as Scott are the reason so many college students are afraid to confess the traumas they have experienced.
Collegiate institutions care more about their industrial sports complex than they do about the humanity of their students. The greed of private interest has corrupted our educational system.
Recently, Tulane University has been exposed for recklessly letting sex life on campus turn into a primitive dystopia. According to survey reports, two in five women are sexually assaulted at Tulane. The disproportionate amount of rapes reported at Tulane raise suspicion about the minimal amounts of rapes reported at the University, especially because of the sizeable population gap.
Tulane’s monumental 40 percent student participation in Greek Life is no surprise. A study conducted by NASPA in 2007 and 2009 concluded “that fraternity members are more likely than non-fraternity members to commit rape.” Even though only 22 percent of students from the University participate in Greek Life, there is a greater total population of students who are involved in fraternities or sororities than Tulane University.
In recent weeks, an organization known as the Collegiate Prevention Action Coalition has attempted to shed light on rape culture around the University. They have established a wall outside of Middleton Library as a think tank where sexual assault survivors and their supporters can anonymously share their experiences and encouragement to combat sexual violence. This attempt to bring social justice also reaches out to men, as 6 percent of men experience sexual assault while attending college.
If you have experienced sexual assault in your lifetime or want to share your experiences, tweet using the #SpeakUpLSU. CPAC created this hashtag to be analogous with the #MeToo movement, in hopes of creating the same surge for social justice. The humiliation unfairly associated with being raped has created a burden for survivors to open up about their stories.
They are reluctant to reopen a wound they are attempting to bury in their past. It is painful breaking the shell of misunderstanding which has encapsulated us and our society. To bring social change, we should encourage more of our courageous survivors, such as Aly Raisman, to speak out and bring attention to the issue.
We should elect more women to work in public policy. We must realize these blatantly malicious acts are not just split-second mistakes affecting people distant from us.
Brave women and men who speak out are a reminder that these are acts of malicious intent that traumatize a person’s conscious for eternity. By tweeting using #SpeakUpLSU, you can create a ripple effect by influencing other victims of sexual assault in the University community. Together, we can make progress toward ending sexual misconduct for good.
Soheil Saneei is a 19-year-old biological engineering freshman from Metairie, Louisiana.
