Sexual violence education will be the focus of Campus Safety Awareness Week, a statewide event beginning Tuesday at UW-Madison.
The week's events are sponsored by three groups'Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment; the campus safety campaign of the Associated Students of Madison; and Men Opposing Sexual Assault'and are intended to provide information to students about sexual assault and to facilitate discussion on the truths and myths of sexual violence.
\Campus safety week is a way to reach out to the campus and help educate how widespread sexual violence is in our society, especially on a college campus,"" said Angela Bartucci, a UW-Madison senior who founded PAVE last year after her own experience of being assaulted by a stranger when she was 17.
Campus Safety Awareness Week is in its seventh year and was developed by the Legislature through the help of then-Gov. Tommy Thompson and the United Council of UW Students, a student government organization for all UW System students.
According to the Sexual Violations Survey compiled by Crown in 1995, one in eight female students will be assaulted during their UW-Madison careers.
Erica Tietz, a UW-Madison senior and coordinator of ASM's campus safety campaign, said she felt students need to realize the danger evident from the statistic.
""The fact is that sexual assault is underreported and false rape accusations only account for 2 percent of all [charges], the same as any other crime,"" Tietz said. ""We want to make students aware of the issue and also reach out to students who have been sexually assaulted so that they know they are not alone.""
An information table will be open at Memorial Union focusing on rape by people with whom the victim is acquainted and sexual assault intervention and prevention Tuesday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
According to the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault, women between the ages of 16 and 24 are four times more likely to be raped than women of any other age group.??Also, according to the coalition, 75 percent of all campus sexual assaults involve alcohol.
""These two factors are just the mixture we have on campus: young women and alcohol,"" Tietz said.
A student forum addressing miscommunication and sexual violence will be held Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. in 2111 Humanities. A panel of female and male students will discuss various issues, including what it means to say ""no"" and how students can prevent sexual miscommunication.
Local high school and junior high school students have also asked PAVE organizers to present two workshops on sexual safety at a conference for student leaders.
""[We hope to] break the wall of silence that surrounds sexual violence and let the student body know of ways to get involved,"" Bartucci said.
Organizers of this week's events will also be recruiting volunteers to participate in a Court Watch, a Dane County-based group that follows sexual assault cases through the court system in order to compile statistics to use for educational purposes.
PAVE's weekly meeting will be held Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in 140 Science Hall.
