Official crime reports show sexual assault is rare on campus, but sexual harassment is much more common. Both are the subject of a month of consciousness-raising programs that start today.
Sexual Assault Awareness Month includes activities such as Operation Jungle Red, Walk a Mile in Her Shoes and Denim Day, which all focus on supporting the campaign against violence to women.
Another way to help prevent assault and harassment is through program such as the Tiger Taekwondo Academy in Yorktown, which encourages people to use martial arts or defense technique to feel safe in public settings. Brittnee Holloway said the classes give her a sense of security and empowerment when she's walking alone on campus.
Her instructor, Master T.R. Malapit, said it's important for students to know some form of self defense.
"If you know any little thing at all, it could mean the difference in whether you have a bad situation or are able to get away," he said.
He's glad techniques from the class can be applied in the real world.
"One of my female black belts was in the Navy, and she put herself in a bad situation at a party with a bunch of sailors and was attacked," he said. "She was able to get out of it, and that was a definite benefit for her."
SEXUAL OFFENSES ON CAMPUS
Ball State has five reported on-campus forcible sexual offenses in the past three recorded years - three in 2010, one in 2009 and one in 2008 - according to the 2011 Campus Security Report by the Student Rights and Community Standards Office. Despite the low reported figures, the actual numbers are likely to be much higher.
"If an incident happens off-campus, the university is not going to report that within that statistic," said Michele Cole, director of Victim Services at Ball State.
In fact, 95 percent of cases aren't even reported, according to a 2010 study by the Center for Public Integrity.
Exact figures on the number of harassments that occur are hard to come by. Michael Gillilan, director of the Office of Student Rights and Community Standards, said no cases of sexual harassment have crossed his desk in the year and a half he's been at Ball State.
Ball State and the Muncie community also offer self defense courses. The Elemental Sexual Assault Protection Program is a course that will be offered next fall and will focus on the types of situations that undergraduates are likely to encounter. The YMCA and University Police offer classes as well, and student reaction has been mostly positive.
"I love the idea of self defense courses," sophomore family and consumer sciences education major Halie Reeves said. "They're very beneficial, and you learn how to use different things that you might be carrying, like your keys, to defend yourself. I think that they're really awesome for women, and men as well."
The University Police Department offers Rape Aggression Defense classes, for example. Sgt. Kent Kurtz, who runs the program, could not be reached for comment.
DEFINING SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
Gillilan said parties and drinking are two factors that can lead to sexual harassment or assault.
"College students are a particularly vulnerable group, unfortunately, because of the alcohol that's involved," he said. "The sexual assaults that have been reported to me in the past year and a half have always involved alcohol, typically where both parties have had way too much to drink."
In fact, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, about half of all sexual assaults typically involve alcohol, with some estimates placing the figure as high as 79 percent.
What is the line between playfulness and sexual aggression? In state law, it could be a line crossed faster than some people realize.
The Indiana Criminal Code defines sexual battery as a person who intends to arouse his or her own sexual desires, or those of another person, by forcibly compelling another person to "submit to the touching by force or the imminent threat of force."
Criminal deviant conduct, meanwhile, is an act that involves anal, oral or other types of "penetration of the sex organ or anus of a person by an object."
Ball State's definitions and reporting procedures of sexual misconduct could be changing to include more clarity and information, thanks to potential modifications in the Student Code. These adjustments are not finalized and still need approval from the University Senate, though Campus Council has already passed the revisions. If approved, these changes will go into effect this fall.
CAMPUS CULTURE
The issue with sexual misconduct might be that students aren't taking the threat of assault seriously, said the university's victims advocate.
"I think what we have to do as a campus culture is not accept rape myths, not accept that violence is happening," Cole said. "Throw out the numbers, throw out the statistics."
About 20 to 25 percent of women in college will report experiencing rape or attempted rape during their time there, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. But Cole said numbers don't tell the whole story.
"I think that it's more important to change the culture in and of itself, that we're not going to tolerate this and accept it," she said.
She said she hopes the events during Sexual Assault Awareness Month will help change students' points of view. This year, activities will focus on the importance of consent and including men in the conversation about sexual violence.
"We encourage all types of participation, but we're really targeting men against violence, and you'll see that movement across all universities," Cole said.
Despite the events and statistics highlighting the dangers of sexual assault, students like freshman nursing major Emily Elming feel comfortable on campus.
"I feel pretty safe," she said. "I carry mace, but I still feel safe."
Read More
The eyes and ears of the David Owsley Museum of Art
By Madelyn Bracken / 2 days agoThe David Owsley Museum of Art (DOMA) doesn’t only house art. For many Ball State University students, it houses opportunity. Graduate and social media assistant, and former DOMA intern and guard, Taylor Hamblin spent the past two years working at the museum surrounded with possibilities to further her career while at Ball State.
Center for Peace offers academic opportunities
By Meghan Braddy and Grayson Joslin / 3 days agoOver the years, the center has offered a peace studies minor, conflict resolution training and grant funding.
AP: New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction
By Staff Reports / 3 days agoNew York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case, according to the Associated Press (AP).
