UW-Madison's Sexual Assault Awareness Month is over and officials are looking forward to increasing education and awareness over the coming years.
Sexual Assault Awareness Month ended last week, with a successful turnout at all of the activities hosted by student groups on the UW-Madison campus.
Several student organizations participated in the month-long initiative including Sex Out Loud, Campus Women's Center and Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment.
""We had great attendance from male and female students consistently throughout the month, and the students at each event were attentive and engaged in the topic,"" Ally Cruickshank, chair of PAVE, said.
According to Cruickshank, PAVE usually spearheads the SAAM coalition. This year, other community partners helped to organize the event and collaboratively decided to focus on alcohol-facilitated sexual assault.
One of PAVE's goals is to prevent sexual and dating violence through education and activism. The student group aims to achieve prevention by connecting with students and promoting discussion about sexual assault.
""We are trying to approach students … by getting information out in a way that is not scaring and turning people away from talking about rape or sexual assault, but making it something that students can connect with and continue to learn from,"" Autumn Wilke, a member of PAVE, said.
According to Kevin Helmkamp, associate dean of students, discussion of sexual assault can bee seen as a prevention mechanism and can comfort victims on campus.
""Anything that university groups can do to keep the topic in the community is good,"" he said. ""There is an element of education here in regards to all of the services that are available on campus so that no victim of sexual assault ever really feels alone.""
The Wisconsin Department of Justice recently awarded the university a $300,000, three-year grant allowing student groups like PAVE to provide more student-accessible events and to create more awareness about sexual assault on campus.
""Four goals of the grant are enhancing first year education and prevention, enhancing training that law enforcement and judicial affairs officers get on these issues, enhancing student access to victim services and improving the coordination like student participation efforts,"" Carmen Hotvedt, University Health Services violence specialist, said.
PAVE plans to incorporate first year education of sexual assault awareness into the SOAR itinerary for the next three years.
According to Hotvedt, sexual assault awareness is important for incoming freshmen.
""Women in the college age group suffer higher rates of victimization than women in other points in their life,"" Hotvedt said.
Hotvedt said statistics usually point to the age range of 16 to 24 as the ages most women fall to victimization of sexual assault, with alcohol as one of the determining factors.
According to Hotvedt, alcohol does not cause sexual assault, but often causes people to take an extra step they may not take if they were sober.
""Oftentimes alcohol not only makes you unable to give consent if you are intoxicated, but also it makes you also less likely to check in with somebody's body language,"" Hotvedt said.
According to Hotvedt and PAVE leaders, students on campus can help to improve the issue of sexual assault by associating it as a community issue, not just a women's issue.
""One area where our campus could improve on is creating more spaces where men can talk to men about sexual assault and creating dialogue about the way that men and women have in ending sexual assault,"" Wilke said.
For more information on sexual assault awareness month visit www.uwpave.riso.wisc.edu.
