For now, you can’t put a name to her story. You don’t know if she was a student. And no one is quite sure of the events that transpired Oct. 7 on West Lakeshore Drive, just north of the Lod Cook Alumni Center.
But the woman who reported her alleged on-campus rape is a hero.
The Daily Reveille has chronicled the plight University sexual assault survivors face throughout the semester. In every story or editorial the newspaper has featured, one recurring theme is the seemingly unconquerable problem of victims not reporting their assaults and the low numbers of assaults reported each school year.
The University has reported 22 sexual assaults in the last five years, according to a 507-page report released by the Louisiana Board of Regents in September.
Concerned with “assumptions” made in an editorial accompanying coverage of the report, LSU President F. King Alexander submitted a letter to the editor in which he asserted that nothing is more important to him than the safety of LSU’s students.
“While we do not believe our reported number is inclusive of every assault on students that actually occurred, we are unable to provide help or support when an assault goes unreported,” Alexander wrote.
His point is valid. The University can only help victims whose assaults are reported. But with so few coming forward, it is incumbent on the University — both its administration and its community — to be diligent in protecting and seeking justice for victims of sexual assault.
That’s why it is vital we keep the victim of Oct. 7’s crime on the forefront of our minds and actions.
In the Twitter-obsessed, online-driven, 24-hour news cycle that dominates modern media, stories are often forgotten within a week. Remember the embellished police report that caused an emergency text message to all students during the Sam Houston State football game? Or the banner Delta Kappa Epsilon hung outside its fraternity house that morning?
That game took place barely more than a month ago, and the events are already gone from most students’ minds.
Don’t let that happen now.
The White House began the “It’s On Us” campaign to address sexual assault on college campuses. Heeding that advice, we can unequivocally say now it is squarely on us.
It’s on us to hold each other accountable — to say something when we see something. It’s on us to ensure the victim’s story isn’t forgotten amid excitement for College Game Day, fall weather and Voodoo Fest.
While we will do our journalistic duty as a student newspaper to report on LSU’s game against Ole Miss and review Arctic Monkeys’ set at Voodoo, we won’t let this woman’s story fall by the wayside. We will continue to report on the developing story in hopes that someone, somewhere can come forward.
It’s on us — all of us at the University — to help get justice for this brave woman.

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