More than ¼ of undergraduate women will experience a form of sexual assault or sexual harassment on their college campus. Of these women, only 20% will report their experience to a university official and an even smaller fraction will attempt to report it to a Title IX officer. According to the Battalion, as of 2016, “nearly 15 percent of female undergraduate students at Texas A&M have experienced some form of ‘nonconsensual penetration or sexual touching involving physical force or incapacitation’ since entering college.”
In my three years at Texas A&M, I had never paid attention to the lack of sexual assault stories and reports that usually haunt college campuses. There was those occasional emails from “crime alert” that would report a female being harassed or threatened, but nothing too drastic. Until, it happened to one of my colleagues. Then, it happened to the girl in my organization. Then to my best friend.
None of the women I stated above reported their sexual assault.
“No one would have believed me.”
“He’s too well known on campus, I’ll become a social pariah.”
“It was my fault, I was too drunk.”
Enough is enough.
A lot of campuses broadcast themselves as campuses that aim to prevent sexual assaults from happening. There are campaigns that make an effort to reduce incidents of sexual assault and sexual violence on campus via student trainings that provide a series of videos and assessments over how to spot sexual harassment/assault. There are even classes and organizations that will begin to require its counselors to complete training to provide them with the knowledge and resources to understand and address sexual assault and consent.
As a community of college students, we are meant to pride ourselves on following the core values of each of our universities. We are supposed to serve and protect and not just be bystanders while other fellow students get hurt. Personally, as a student at A&M, I wish for no member of the Aggie family to fear speaking up or reporting what has happened to them. They should be heard and be stood by. To school systems across the country, other college students and fellow Aggies, and myself: do better.
I’m not sitting here, writing this article, to put any blame on Texas A&M, its faculty, or any other education system. I love A&M, and as a student that jumps to the occasion of calling herself an Aggie, I want these complications to become a problem of the past.
Enough is Enough.
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-273-8255
Sexual Assault Resource Center: 1-979-731-1000
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673