How would it feel to have your freedom of saying yes or no taken away from you at the blink of an eye? Imagine every emotion sexual assault victims feel right after something like freedom of consent is taken. Sexual assault on college campuses across the US has been one of the most prominent issues at universities worldwide.  On average, one out of five college students experience sexual assault throughout their college career. Ninety-five percent of those sexual assault incidents go unreported due to fear and mistrust. University administrators continue to try their hardest in ensuring the best safety and awareness for college students around the United States, but fail to decrease the amount of sexual assault incidents on campus.  This problem is something that needs to be addressed and discussed.   What can be done for more sexual assault awareness and prevention to take place on college campuses across the US?

The issue of sexual assault at universities and the need for prevention and awareness is a very daunting topic for me considering that most sexual assault cases happen to women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. Being that I am a female college student on a very large campus, I wanted to know more about how other colleges deal with the issue of sexual assault.  Researching this topic lines up great with my values of freedom of speech, and having a say in what goes on in one's life. I am a firm believer in people having the option to make their own decisions.  Researching about this issue will give me insight on how to eliminate this issue at the University of South Carolina and be an advocate for awareness. Just two weekends ago, a USC student was sexually assaulted by an unknown perpetrator on campus.  This incident makes the issue more prevalent to me and other students right her at the University of South Carolina as well as Columbia, SC. Knowing that this sexual assault incident happened less than a mile from my residence hall, I want to be more informed about how to fix this problem. Being a college student here in Columbia SC, I hope to research and gain knowledge on sexual assault in order to spread awareness and prevention on this immoral issue around the University of South Carolina and other colleges across the United States. 

Jake New's "The 'Yes' means 'Yes' World" discusses the transition from the "no means no" policy to the "yes means yes" policy on sexual consent on college campuses.  New reflects on why the Dartmouth Summit on sexual assault decided to change the policy in a more positive way rather than sticking to the original "no means no" stance. The author explains the difference between both policies, including the pros and cons of both.  New really emphasizes the faults within the "yes means yes" method and describes the media's feelings about this new approach. New is very interested in finding the best policy and perfecting that policy as much as possible when dealing with the issue of sexual consent on college campuses.  Jake New's article provided two great starting policies that can help prevent sexual awareness across universities in the United States. Kelli Gulite's "Why All Colleges Should Adopt Affirmative Consent" written for the DC Forum website explains how using the yes means yes policy when talking about consent can positively help sexual assault prevention. Since the Obama Administration recently launched a campaign to end sexual assault on college campuses, Kelli Gulite acknowledges the fact that sexual assault on college campuses is a very pressing issue, and argues that the yes means yes option is the best for avoiding the conflict of sexual assault. The author gives many points on how the affirmative consent option work and makes for a better way of getting sexual consent.  Gulite values the fact that a yes for consent is very clear and cannot be confused with the typical grey area of not responding or being hesitant when giving consent. The author is a credible and reliable source because of her Criminal Justice degree.  Knowing her background makes her points on the issue of sexual assault more believable than any other person.  Gulite gives many points and details about how the affirmative consent approach that make her stance very clear and understandable to an audience of college students and university officials.  This source is very bias towards affirmative consent because of the change it has made for sexual assault in California.  Gulite's article gives insight on affirmative consent helping reduce sexual assault across college campuses. Time's "University Survey Highlights Role of 'Verbal Coercion' in Sexual Assault" talks about the increase in sexual assault of women across college campuses.  The article is based on the survey the University of Michigan gave to girls on their campus about sexual assault, specifically awareness and prevention. Upon getting the feedback, the University of Michigan developed new programs in order to keep college students informed and aware on how to prevent sexual assault throughout their college career.  She discusses how these solutions can change the problems with sexual assault on campuses around the US.  The author values the importance of awareness and prevention on campuses, and wants many universities to implement these programs on their campus in order to reduce sexual assault cases on college students.  The author is solely interested in solving the problem of sexual assault throughout universities, and providing students with awareness. I found the author very credible because of her use of logos within the article. She continuously provides statistics that make the reader think more on the importance of the topic at hand.  Using outside sources also brings more credibility to the article. All in all, "University Survey Highlights Role of 'Verbal Coercion' in Sexual Assault" proves to give great programs for college campuses that provide prevention and awareness to college students. 

Throughout my research process, the task of answering the question presented will help me gain insight on the troubling issue many universities face around the US. The answer to how sexual assault can be prevented and how students can be aware of the issue can be found, but finding what is known as the best solution to this problem can be argued by many. There are multiple ways to reduce the problem of sexual assault on campuses, but which way is going to be the most effective in reducing or eliminating the problem?  This is where potential controversy and challenges come into play.  Finding the best solution over all other possibilities will be the problem in answering my research question.  Within all three articles were enough support in the solutions but also rebuttal and opposition toward the answers to the problem.  Many of the articles agree with the affirmative consent solution, but bring up many defects within this policy.  All in all, the best solution will be presented when tackling the issue of sexual assault across college campuses. 

In conclusion, sexual assault is one of the biggest problems on college campuses to date.  Sexual assault victims have their freedom to give consent completely taken away from them. I have found interest in this topic because of the impact it has on college students just like me. The question of how can sexual assault on college campuses be prevented and make college students more aware of the cause can be answered in many ways, but finding the best solution is the issue.  A few sources I have found reflect on the policies of sexual consent, revise old consent policies, and talk about new programs to raise awareness to college students.  With new revised solutions at hand, the prevention and awareness of sexual assault will successfully be implemented across universities in the United States.

