Sexual assault has remained a major concern for female students among college campuses over the decades. I am defining sexual assault as any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. As a female college student, sexual assault worries me because I fall into the category with the highest risk for being sexually assaulted (women between the ages of eighteen and twenty four) (Bedera, 2). Although there have been a number of preventative measures put in place to help inform people and try to avoid assault, the percentage of sexual assaults on college campus still is around the same as it was twenty and thirty years ago. In order to reduce the rate of sexual assault on college campus, colleges need to have a class that freshman students are required to take along with a group discussion to follow up. 

The class will be small, about 20-30 people per class and will have a regular instructor along with a peer instructor. The students will benefit from having a peer instructor because it is someone they can relate to and discuss things with. The classes will also be separated by gender but they will meet with other classes of the opposite gender in class discussions to view different perspectives on different issues.  Having this class will allow students to get one-on-one experience and discussion with fellow peers and discuss the different issues that come with it. Along with the program for the students, I propose there should also be one for the school disciplinary board. The board should receive specific training on how to handle sexual assault cases and be just as informed as the students on what sexual assault is and how to handle it. A well educated staff will help ensure that cases will be handled correctly and there will be no mistakes when it comes to sexual assault trials, they will be handled with all seriousness. 

There are many reasons why sexual assault still happens on college campus. Some reasons are that the school boards were never intended to try serious crimes, like sexual assault, so many of them are handled the wrong way. School disciplinary boards were created to try minor crimes like honor-code violations and many of their members do not have training in law, investigation, or the use of physical evidence (Goldberg, 1). Because of this many trials are not taken seriously and the perpetrator gets to walk free without any punishment and they could end up committing a sexual assault again and the cycle repeats. By informing students on sexual assault and how to prevent it, I believe that the number of assaults will significantly decrease.

Another reason why sexual assault still occurs on campus is because many people are unaware of  what sexual assault is or they don't know how to report it so many assaults go underreported.. The class I am proposing will teach students what is considered to be sexual assault, and if you are sexually assaulted, how you should report it. Many women fail to report a sexual assault because they are sexually assaulted by men they are acquainted with. Another reason for sexual assault being underreported is the consumption of drugs and alcohol making the victim unable to remember what happened, so they are unsure if what happened was rape or not. (Armstrong, 2). With more knowledge about sexual assault and a clear definition of it, which will be provided in the class, the rate of sexual assault could decrease.

Some things that this class will teach are that we should look at sexual violence through a prevention standpoint instead of trying to teach females how to defend themselves and what they need to do to keep themselves safe. The class will teach that we should do the active bystander approach which is when you see someone who is uncomfortable, you step in and make sure they are okay, or step in when you see someone forcing alcohol on another person. This is important because it teaches that there are many things we can do from the outside to prevent sexual assault from happening to our peers. This creates a culture connection because it makes everyone accountable to each other on a human level and makes it impossible to say that we can't relate to sexual violence because we are all looking out for other human beings and we should do what we can to prevent sexual assault. (DeBari). This class will be beneficial to give tips to students on how to get involved and work together as a community to reduce the number of sexual assaults on their campus, so not only will it overall reduce the risk of sexual assault but it will get students involved in things that are actually happening on our campus, more frequently than people would expect. 

This sexual assault program I am proposing will also teach previous sexual assault victims how to reach out and get help. Statistics show that women who are sexually assaulted one time in their life have a higher chance of being assaulted again (Follette, 2). Many problems with sexual assault begins at home and within the family. Not everyone has the same opportunities as everyone else and is not able to receive the same knowledge from their parents about things like sexual assault. It is very important for people to be informed on what sexual assault is and how to prevent it. The  Journal Article, Sexual Assault Among College Students, written by Tara E. Sutton and Leslie Gordon Simmons,  addresses the effects of insecure adult attachment styles and the hook-up- culture associated with college. These authors are showing how to solve the problem of sexual assault at a young age, within the family. They state that young adults would benefit from relationship education programs. According to Sutton and Simmons, harsh parenting and aggressive behavior between caregivers teaches children coercive behaviors (Sutton). They claim that it will help lower the chance of the young adults being involved in a sexual assault in the future. The authors talk about how the policies and procedures among universities are ineffective and need to be revised so new better policies can be put in place. I believe that my revised policy will help reduce the amount of sexual assault that occurs on college campuses.

The class will address the different stereotypes that go along with sexual assault. Many people blame the women expect the women to change to prevent rape instead of teaching the men not to rape. The Journal Article Never Go Out Alone examines the different rape prevention and risk reduction tips posted on forty different college's websites and analyzed them to find a common theme. The common theme was that most tips were directed towards women and suggest four main messages. Those messages are that there are no safe places for women, women can't trust anyone, women should never be alone, and women are vulnerable (Bedera,1). It shows that the trouble of college sexual assault prevention falls mainly on female students. This class will show that women are not the only ones who need to practice sexual assault prevention, the men also need to take steps to ensure they are not in a situation where they could possibly sexually assault someone.

Some may argue that the colleges do enough to prevent sexual assault on college campuses, but if this were the truth then the number of sexual assaults should decrease over the years and studies show that this is not true. Others might say that the problem of sexual assault happens before the students go off to school due to the home environment of the student. The sources all agree that sexual assault is a problem that needs to be solved, the problem is where and how do we resolve it. The course that I am suggesting will allow students to learn about sexual assault and become more informed on the issue. The more informed they are, the less chance there will be for a sexual assault to occur, or if one occurs the student will know how to report it and the college will know how to handle and resolve the issue so the it doesn't happen again.

One article, "The Effect Of A College Sexual Assault Prevention Program On First-Year Students' Victimization Rates." talks about the effect of sexual assault prevention programs put in place on college campuses. They evaluate one program in particular where a group of first year students were exposed to an one hour long awareness program and then group discussion afterwards. They compared the class exposed to the program with the class one year ahead of them to surveys taken when they were both ending their sophomore year. They found that the students who were not subject to the program were more likely to be sexually assaulted than those who did participate in the program. However this program was only effective for males and females and not  but not for students with a prior history of sexual assault , students who were gay or lesbian, or bisexual students. This agrees with my thesis that the program will be an effective one. The program they used in this experiment was very similar to the one I am proposing.

Another argument people may have against the program is that many college students skip class, so what makes this one any different? They think that because sexual assault prevention education programs in college are not mandatory, many students will not participate in the class or group discussion. One article, "College Students' Perceptions Of The Importance Of Sexual Assault Prevention Education: Suggestions For Targeting Recruitment For Peer-Based Education."  used the experiment to show which students think that there would be a benefit from attending a sexual assault program, and from these students they go on to say those should be the ones to teach the sexual assault classes and recruit people for the classes to get more students involved. In order to ensure that students would attend these classes we would have to do a similar thing and hand-pick the student leaders we would want for the classes. We would need to find individuals that are able to convince more people to get involved, especially in the population of men because they thought they would not benefit from attending a sexual assault prevention class, which is not good because men are the majority of the ones who are doing the assaulting (Jozkowski, 7).

In the article "Study of Canadian University Women Shows Training Program Reduced Risk of Rape." an experiment was performed using first-year female college students to determine if this new program designed to teach women how to resist sexual assault would show a reduction in risk of completed rape during their first year at school. There were two random groups set in place one group was assigned to a session where they got the usual things that universities pass out about information on sexual assault and prevention. The other groups were given training throughout four three-hour sessions in small groups teaching them to "assess risk from acquaintances, overcome emotional barriers in acknowledging danger, and engage in effective verbal and physical self defense". Their research showed that the women who received the resistance training were less likely to have fallen victim to complete rape than the control group. This shows that being informed on sexual assault is a good way to prevent it from happening. Some topics that would be discussed in the class would follow some of these same concepts, teaching students how to assess risk from acquaintances, overcome emotional barriers in acknowledging danger, and engage in effective verbal and physical self defense.

In the article Rape Myths, Rape Scripts, And Common Rape Experiences Of College Women the authors; Jericho M. Hockett,  Donald A. Saucier, and Caitlyn Badke, conducted two research studies in which they examined peoples rape perception after giving them different rape scenarios (rape myths and rape scripts) , each one varying the strategy the perpetrator uses during a sexual assault. A main point in the article was to see if people thought more negatively about the women if the rape scenarios included a rape myth, compared to a rape script. They believe that if violence is absent and the woman is voluntarily intoxicated that people will think negatively about the woman and either blame her or think she is not telling the truth. They believe that if the woman fit the "ideal victim image" and the rape fit the stereotypical rape category then the man would be looked more negatively upon rather than the woman The class will also teach not to judge women who have been sexually assaulted and how to not be caught up in the stereotypical thoughts that come with rape. It will teach the real definition of sexual assault not the one that many people picture when they hear the terms "sexual assault" or "rape". 

In conclusion, I believe that this sexual assault prevention program would really be beneficial in preventing sexual assault on campus. Informing students about sexual assault will make them more aware of what is going on around them and show them ways to prevent it from happening to them or another peer. The group discussion will allow people to give real experiences and share personal stories that can really teach people a lot. This is a very emotional topic and people learn best from hearing about others first hand experiences on it. Also dividing the classes into boys and girls will allow for sensitive materials to be easier to share, then other discussion topics that are not as sensitive can be shared in the big group that is made up of the boys and girls. Although some may argue that people would skip this class and not take it seriously, I believe that if we get the right group of people to support and encourage people to go that attendance would not be a problem. One way to find out which students would be best to lead and endorse this program is to do the survey like the one in the article "College Students' Perceptions Of The Importance Of Sexual Assault Prevention Education: Suggestions For Targeting Recruitment For Peer-Based Education."  and see which students believe that the class is beneficial and that every student would benefit from taking it. It will take some work and time to hand-pick the students and teachers that will be leading the classes and discussions, but the end result will be worth it. Lowering sexual assault rates on college campus would be a huge impact on an issue that has remained consistent over the decades and reducing this number could leave a long lasting impact on future generations to come. Reducing sexual assault on campus will be the start of an even greater movement: to end sexual assault all over. 

