The Daily Mississippian published an edition on Oct. 27, 2016 dedicated solely to the issue of sexual assault. Those for whom sexual assault is a sensitive issue should know there is explicit content below. Periodically, The DM staff will update this page with more articles that pertain to this issue.
In October of 2007, the Campus Sexual Assault Study found that more than 50 percent of campus sexual assaults happen during the first six to 10 weeks of college. In the years after this report was announced, that period has come to be called the Red Zone. It has been reported on by news organizations across the country, but the epidemic has not slowed. In fact, an article on page seven of this edition reports that stalking and harassment reports are at a new high.
Into their own hands: Students vital in discussions on sexual assault
Another in the myriad of resources available to sexual assault survivors has emerged over the past year, one led by the most common victims: students.Whereas the Violence Prevention Office is made up of Lindsey Bartlett Mosvick and one graduate assistant, and the Title IX office has one coordinator, Honey Ussery, Rebels Against Sexual Assault has drawn more than 350 students.
Behind the badge: Officers who respond to sexual assault
Officers are often some of the first responders to incidents of sexual assault. This job, as hard as it may be, is necessary for the safety of the people who depend on them most.
What comes next? How the university helps survivors
Tracy Murry, director of the Office of Conflict Resolution and Student Conduct, has worked at eight universities across the country for the past 21 years resolving student conduct issues.
“We’re the end of the process,” Murry said, sitting behind his desk.
To walk alone at night: Staying safe in Oxford after dark
“I walked home from the Square to the Hub once,” Olivia Kelley, a senior art major, said. “It was the Arkansas game last year, [my] junior year. My friend and I made it all the way to Firehouse Subs, and then a limo picked us up because they felt bad for us.”
If you haven’t done it, you know someone who has. And if it’s never happened to you, it’s happened to someone you know. A late night out at the Square, at a party, somewhere out in Oxford, hits the witching hour. It’s time to go home.
Power of the pen: Overcoming sexual assault through shared stories
Alexis Smith loves stories. She loves to share. She loves to write. She loves to blog.
One of the latest stories she has shared is about what happened to her a little more than a year ago.
“Tomorrow makes one year since I was sexually assaulted,” her Facebook post begins. “I share this because I want to do my part to help end the stigma that surrounds talking about sexual assault and rape.”
The new face of sexual assault on campus
Ole Miss students have reported more stalking crimes this semester than ever before. New technologies and social media have increased awareness of these crimes but have also made it easier for stalkers to do what they do.
Opinions
Cartoon by Jake Thrasher
You are no less of a man for having been assaulted
Fourteen years ago, I didn’t know what was happening to me. It happened over and over for years, and I didn’t know how to stop it. I was sexually assaulted by a peer for three years as a child, and those years of assault still impact me today. I don’t remember much about those dark times, but I remember feeling the cold tile floor on my back and those groping hands all over my body.
I remember the fear and confusion I felt every time he assaulted me. I can’t count the number of times it happened because it was such a regular occurrence. I felt scared, violated and worthless.
I knew there was something wrong with his actions, but I didn’t have the words to put to it.
From unaware to advocate: My experience in awareness
Sexual violence is something most of us would rather not think about. It’s a subject that has been deemed too taboo for casual conversation, and even when it is brought up, most would rather dance around the topic until they’re able to change the subject to something more light-hearted.
Last semester, I fell into the category of the blissfully unaware populace, until a member of my fraternity engaged in sexual violence through a verbal medium.
Separating truth from myth: A Q&A with RASA president Sydney Green
What is sexual assault on college campuses? How many students at our university have been sexually assaulted? If a survivor does not actively resist a perpetrator’s advances, how can that person say he or she was sexually assaulted? Why does telling women to watch their drinks at parties not help prevent sexual assault?
Word on the issue
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR:
The idea for producing this issue came to me over the summer. I knew sexual assault as an epidemic on college campuses and thought there must be a way for us to address it in a meaningful way.
When I began proposing the idea of this issue to my staff, I was shocked to hear so many
of them reference personal experiences. How many friends around me have known this trauma? How many of them are survivors in disguise?
It was then that I knew this issue must be published. If there is one thing I would like to do during my time as editor, it must be this.It is a sickening reality that one in five women and one in 16 men are raped while in college. It is unfathomable that those numbers are most likely wrong. With reporting rates low, there are many sexual assaults that go unnoticed, unheeded.
Sexual assault as an issue must be recognized and ad- dressed, and this is our way of doing that.
Those for whom sexual assault is a sensitive issue should know there is explicit content in this issue of The Daily Mississippian.
– Clara Turnage, editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian
