Sexual Assault on College Campuses

                  I read “A Lack of Consequences for Sexual Assault” by Kristen Lombardi and “Every Student Should Feel Safe on Campus” by Prabhdeep Kehal, Cynthia Ledesma and Carl Nadler for my proposal. I am interested in the issue of sexual assault on college campuses for this project. Out of all of the issues relating to sexual assault the one I find most exigent to resolve would be to educate students more on sexual assault and work on making college campuses a safer place to be. In order to make college campuses a safer place, people need to be well informed about the topic first. In the article “Every Student Should Feel Safe on Campus”, the main proposal discussed is that “administration [needs] to collaborate with students on issues regarding campus climate” (Kehal 394). The proposal in this article is similar to the first step in my proposal. The only way to make a difference about the issue of sexual misconduct on campuses is if everyone participates in making an effort for change.

            Here at Colorado State, students have to participate in a three hour long online course that educates them on what is considered sexual assault, how to look out for potential threats of it and the rights everybody has when it comes to cases of sexual assault. In all honesty, I have forgotten most of what I learned from the video and I took that course less than six months ago. The one thing I remember most from the course is that one in five women experience sexual assault while attending college. Just knowing facts like that does not make me feel any safer walking onto this campus. The image below shows a visual representation of the percentage of women who experience sexual assault on a college campus.

Credit: https://hannahsachse.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/one-in-five-women.png

            I am going to propose a one credit seminar class that is required for freshmen to take their first semester at school. This class will be just one day a week and will be taught by upperclassmen who are either a part of the Women Gender Advocacy Center or are studying in a field related to women’s studies. The class will count as three credit hours toward the teacher’s transcript due to the planning that is involved with the course. This strategy is beneficial to both the teacher and student. The teacher receives credit hours as well as experience in teaching about their major and what they are passionate about. The student is better educated on making campus a safer place to be as well as receiving a credit hour. The purpose of this class would be to educate students as well as begin to build a safer community on campus.  

            The stakeholder I would like to target with my proposal is the Women and Gender Advocacy Center. I am addressing this group because their role on campus is to educate others about sexual assault as well as provide support to anyone who has experienced sexual assault. They are a huge part of my proposal as well because I will be asking them to be involved with my proposal. This issue is exigent for my audience because the foundation of their club is based on creating a safe space for students as well as bring about change to the community regarding the issue of sexual assault. My stakeholder has power when it comes to this issue because they are the ones who are educating the community about sexual assault on campuses.