The University’s recent security report presents a campus with a chilling dichotomy. On the one hand, it is intensely disturbing to know that sexual assault occurs on this campus. On the other, the increase in reports of such crimes signals a growing sense of comfort with notifying appropriate authorities.
As the campus gathers today for Speak Out UNC!, the University should build off of whatever momentum the security report revealed in lifting the stigma of reporting assault.
According to the report, 17 sexual assaults were reported in 2010, almost tripling the six that were reported the previous year. UNC officials greeted this news more as a sign of increased reporting than increased crime, and that’s the right attitude.
From new student orientations to flyers posted in dorms, the University has sought to promote better awareness of resources available to victims. It has gone on the “offensive,” said Bob Pleasants, interpersonal violence prevention coordinator for Campus Health Services, rather than passively offering help without promoting it.
Students should take confidence in this report. Through campus-wide initiatives like HAVEN training, there are options at students’ disposal. It will be important for UNC to continue to foster a culture in which sexual assaults are not only detested but reported.
Doing so would provide the sense of comfort that the blue light system and campus police cannot. It would assure students that help is not just waiting for them but reaching out to them.
