A majority of campus sexual assaults occur between August and November, per study
LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — The UWL campus is starting to show signs of fall. And with fall, comes a trend universities nationwide are trying to change.”
“As a society we still have a long way to go,” said Ingrid Peterson, Violence Preventionist at UWL.
According to the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, 11% of students experience rape or sexual assault on campus, and over half of the reported cases of sexual assault happens between August and November.
To limit this, UWL has mandatory sexual and domestic assault courses, and emergency phones to contact the police, but they can’t eliminate sexual assault on campus alone.
“We have those prevention measures in place but I think we need to understand is we can only do so much. If someone wants to hurt someone else if you have ways to prevent that I’m all ears.”
Peterson says that as a whole, society needs to make adjustments to allow students to feel more comfortable discussing sexual and domestic violence.
“Number once concern that most survivors have is who’s going to find out about this,” added Peterson.
“We’re very aware of that, we train our officers constantly in how to deal with sexual assault,” said UWL Police Detective Chris Schuster.
He believes that police officers being more approachable can help the larger problem on campuses.
“Having that student’s comfort level be there with a campus partner like us is very important to helping get that story across.”
“I’d probably talk to my favorite professor, which ever one I feel most comfortable with.”
Not all students would turn to the police first, UWL freshman Ava Zahn feels that she feels most comfortable with staff.
“They would know the smartest place to go take the next step forward, yeah.”
But whether it be police, or staff, UWL wants to encourage students to talk with someone, to help stop a larger, societal issue.
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