The university sent out a campus-wide email on Oct. 31 to notify every member of the UW-Madison community about a reported sexual assault that occurred over Halloween weekend. I opened my email inbox, read it through and found myself once again disappointed with people’s behavior. When will we, as a society, learn that this is not okay?
UW-Madison, like nearly every public school, doesn’t have the best track record with sexual assault.
There are a variety of factors that contribute to this . Some of thse factors fall on the university, and others fall on the students themselves: lack of education on the subject, groups of people who are used to getting what they want, the ability to skew a “no” into sounding like a “yes,” etc. A combination of these things too often end in bad experiences, reports, victims and survivors.
It doesn’t matter what someone is wearing, what their blood-alcohol content is, or whether or not they’re alone or not; what matters is basic, consensual treatment of others at all times.
There are a variety of resources for survivors, and that’s great. The thing is, they shouldn’t have to be used — there should be no victims, there should only be students. We should all treat each other as equals and respect one another.
I don’t want to feel unsafe walking home from the library at 8 p.m. on a Tuesday. I don’t want to keep wondering if the guy I just met will try anything, slip anything into my drink or grab me unwillingly. There is no room for sexual assault in my — or anyone’s —life, and there is certainly no room for it here at UW-Madison.