Spring has sprung and so should increased awareness of sexual assault in Syracuse.

Everyone’s read the chilling reports, seen the documentaries and heard the somber newscasts describing yet another sexual assault. But when all is said and done, these harsh realities are brushed under the rug and we move on because it seems to be the only way to cope with the ugly truth. These injustices occur every day, anywhere and to anyone: our family members, classmates and friends.

But knowing and identifying the problem is only half the battle. Awareness is useless without action and local groups are powerfully setting the example that no matter your position in life — whether you are an activist, student or a professional — you still have a voice in saying that sexual assault isn’t OK.

Were it not for local campaigns embracing Sexual Assault Awareness Month in April and the cause year-round, it would be difficult to empathize with matter as personal as sexual assault on a very public level. Because of their ability to appeal emotionally to the community, these efforts make people feel closer to a central initiative.

It’s easy for people to do nothing because they think someone else will. But instead of assuming that large-scale issues will resolve themselves, we should make the conscious decision to use our voices and become involved. While one may not be personally affected by sexual assault, there will always be someone else out in the world who has to live with the wounds of this battle.

A Syracuse-based women’s empowerment foundation, the Vera House, is confronting the issue of sexual assault one t-shirt at a time with its Clothesline Project. The exhibit will feature 300 t-shirts at Destiny USA mall for one week in mid-April, each of them with a different quote from a sexual assault survivor, including “It wasn’t my fault” and “No more silence.”

There is a common misconception that certain individuals are more likely to be assaulted — a young, naive college student who had one too many drinks at a party and shouldn’t have been wearing such a revealing outfit. But, that’s the thing about sexual assault: It does not discriminate. It’s important to put ourselves in the shoes of these survivors because they could very well be our own and initiatives like the Clothesline Project put that into perspective.

“I think Syracuse’s efforts to spread awareness about sexual assault should be commended,” said Jennifer Nadler, a sexual abuse survivor, local activist and Le Moyne College alumna. “It’s also wonderful to see schools such as Syracuse University and Le Moyne College getting involved.”

Cross-community collaboration is integral part to creating significant change. To raise awareness and funds for Vera House, a group of seven SU students have been promoting and selling a sticker as a part of a community service project for a community health promotion course, offered within the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. The sticker’s slogan is “No excuse for abuse” printed on them and they are available for purchase in the SU Bookstore.

Working as individuals may gain the attention of some, but working with a team of people who share a common goal ensures that the message will endure and reach the community.

“A majority of people know someone who has experienced sexual or domestic violence,” said Bridget Yule, a member of the board of directors at Vera House and director of student services and programs at SU, who is also overseeing the group of seven interns that created the project. “It’s important for students to know what their options are and that there are places they can go on campus and locally, these places are an asset to the community.”

Beginning on college campuses can be an effective way to spread awareness to the greater Syracuse community. These efforts educate students who are still forming their own opinions on sexual assault and can help eradicate the maintained rape culture on SU’s campus.

One in 5 women are sexually assaulted while in college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and it’s possible that SU is no exception. The university is required to publish an annual security report, according to the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act. But when carefully analyzing all 86 pages of the report, it seemed that specifics were only available upon request.

Students may feel discouraged by the lengthy retrieval of this information, a process that contributes to a sense of distrust of the university and persistent rape culture. And it’s this very lack of readily available information that transforms tangible incidents into hypothetical situations. We may forget that sexual assault often begins within the home which, for many of us, is our beloved campus. As a student body, we cannot take strides toward progress and change if we do not know the severity of the issue.

Our time to speak up is long overdue. Efforts to create awareness, such as the sticker project and Vera House events, clarify that these problems will exist until something is done about them and students no longer feel an impending sense of doom the next time they walk home from a late class.

“Not only does it take a village to raise a child, it takes a village to protect that child as well.  And without open and sometimes uncomfortable conversation, we as a society will never be able to shatter the confines of silence and secrecy that surround sexual assault,” Nadler said. “How can we ever make progress if we don’t openly speak about the issue?”

We should be able to feel a sense of security in knowing that our bodies are ours and that our community defends this idea, no matter how many events and campaigns it takes to get there.

It does take a village to reverse the culture surrounding sexual assault. But we shouldn’t forget the joint responsibility between individuals that can bring about change in close circles as well as groups like Vera House, which perfectly depict effective sexual assault education on a local basis playing a vital role in creating a more informed community.

Ivana Pino is a freshman political science major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at ivpino@syr.edu.

Published on March 30, 2016 at 12:00 am