Photo By: Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo EditorThe National Institute of Justice has found that 35 of every 1,000 female col­lege stu­dents has been a vic­tim of sex­ual assault. The num­ber of reported assault cases at Ferris has been found to be less.

Upper class­men at Ferris may have some rec­ol­lec­tion of the sex­ual assaults that have occurred on cam­pus in the past few years which jumped from four reported cases of forcible assault in 2004, to nine in 2007.

In a research study enti­tled “Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges and Universities are doing about it” done by the National Institute of Justice, “Just under three per­cent of all col­lege women become vic­tims of rape (either com­pleted or attempted) in a given nine month aca­d­e­mic year.” The study goes on to say, “the per­cent­age trans­lates into…35 such crimes for every 1,000 women students.”

Ferris appears to be well under that aver­age, despite the increase in cases in recent years.

DPS Police Chief Martin Bledsoe said “we take a very com­pre­hen­sive approach to sex­ual assault…and work with other areas of campus.”

He also stated that there are many pro­grams that are in place to aid in pre­ven­tion of assault and respond­ing aggres­sively when a sit­u­a­tion arises. Some of these include the Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) pro­gram, work­ing closely with stu­dent affairs and res­i­den­tial life, teach­ing stu­dents about defense in FSUS 100 classes, and many others.

Another notice­able change over the past few years is the blue light phones on cam­pus. Bledsoe said that the num­ber of them has increased from seven, to now 40 cur­rently present on campus.

While the police and other pro­grams are work­ing to help keep this rate as low as pos­si­ble, the issue should also be looked at from an inside angle.

In a recent case of alleged rape involv­ing two FSU stu­dents, the male stu­dent shared some of his thoughts with the Torch on the sit­u­a­tion. The source wishes to remain anony­mous due to the ongo­ing court proceedings.

“I haven’t been given a fair trial, it’s seems like no one cares what hap­pens to me,” said the FSU stu­dent in regards to his sit­u­a­tion. “I’ve been kicked out of school and can’t return even though I only need two classes to fin­ish out my degree and graduate!”

The source feels that sit­u­a­tion has not been thor­oughly under­stood because of prece­dent and stereo­types regard­ing cases of this nature.

Sexual assault is an emo­tional issue that can prompt strong view­points from both parties.

The female involved in this sit­u­a­tion, who will also remain anony­mous, said, “The worst part about court is that once you are in the process of get­ting over what hap­pened, the court pro­ceed­ings start so you have to re-live it all over again, right when you are finally get­ting closer to a nor­mal life.” She went on to say, “There isn’t a sex­ual assault stereo­type about either the assailant or the vic­tim, it really can be anyone.”

Situations like this are not that uncom­mon at Ferris and the nature and cir­cum­stances of them should be stressed to stu­dents to know what to look for.

Hannah Henry, a FSU senior in the psy­chol­ogy pro­gram, com­mented on sex­ual assault at Ferris say­ing, “I feel that Ferris does a good job deal­ing with a sex­ual assault case after it has happened…but I don’t see any efforts of Ferris to pre­vent it.”

While sex­ual assault hap­pens quite fre­quently on col­lege cam­puses, it has also been a topic of inter­est for many major news out­lets. Questions con­cern­ing sex­ual assault have been on the minds of many and the curios­ity often arises, “are the laws and con­se­quences con­cern­ing sex­ual offend­ers fair?”

An Aug. 8 arti­cle in The Economist titled Unjust and Ineffective said, “laws get harsher and harsher. But that does not nec­es­sar­ily mean they are get­ting bet­ter.” The arti­cle also com­mented on the stigma many offend­ers face, even the minor ones, that, “Some bosses do not mind hir­ing sex offend­ers, if they know the full story and the offender does not seem dangerous.”

This is one of the con­cerns of the male here at FSU who is now fac­ing court and pos­si­ble prison time for alleged rape.

He said, “just because a girl says some­thing hap­pened, I could be going to jail and the rest of my life could be ruined.”

As many stu­dents know, alco­hol and other sub­stances can play a large role in these sit­u­a­tions. Memories can be mud­dled and “con­sent” may take on a whole new meaning.

According to the Ferris State hand­book, “If phys­i­cal sex­ual con­tact occurs and there is a lack of con­sent (or a per­son is not able to con­sent) or force is involved, a sex­ual assault most likely has occurred. Lack of con­sent is a cru­cial factor.”

This is not to say that this is the sce­nario of the case that is referred to in this arti­cle, but this def­i­n­i­tion pro­vides a clear mes­sage for what stu­dents should be aware of when a sit­u­a­tion may be bor­der­ing on assault.

For vic­tims or stu­dents who have been involved in an inci­dent of sex­ual assault, reported or not, Ferris offers a coun­sel­ing cen­ter as well as a Crisis Hotline. More infor­ma­tion on these can be found on the Ferris web site.

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