Be careful during Little 5

An average of 6.5 rapes have happened per year in the past nine years on campus, according to an Indiana Daily Student report yesterday. It's not on epidemic proportions.\nBut we all know how big a campus this is, how much alcohol is available and how college students can behave when they're "having fun."\nMost of the you will be going all out on the fun factor this weekend, but that's not an excuse for any unwanted sexual advances. Already this semester, there have been four reported rapes. Although one of those was later retracted, any is still too many. And we can only assume there are countless other incidents of assault and rape that are not reported.\nThe administration, with Dean McKaig, is making sexual assault the topic for a May program for students and faculty. This recognition of the problem will be a key step in making IU's campus intolerant of sexual assault in any form.\nUnfortunately, students will be taking exams for the first week of May and most will be gone after that. Perhaps the program could be expanded to include programming for next fall. \nDuring orientation, freshmen already attend a skit about sexual assault, but an hour in a theater during the summer won't make women (and men) safer at IU.\nSexual assault certainly isn't a problem particular to IU, but that doesn't mean it would be acceptable to continue the current pattern.\nBut formal education can do only so much. The most important progress against sexual assault will happen when students exert pressure on their peers. When taking advantage of someone inebriated is not worthy of a high-five, our campus will be safer. When victims of sexual assault hold the perpetrators accountable, our campus will be safer. \nIn a party situation, with alcohol blurring lines, it can be extremely difficult later to go back and determine exactly what touch or word crossed the line.\nSome people want to say that rape in the context of alcohol consumption is somehow less of a crime, supposedly because victims knowingly put themselves in a risky situation. Shifting the blame from the rapist to the victim is a much more serious version of "but she started it" that we told teachers after a playground scuffle. Nothing can excuse or lessen the blame that falls on the rapist or assaulter.\nShould everyone, including women, be cautious when drinking? Of course. There is no excuse for fabricating an assault story to get out of a drinking ticket. Sadly, even one false report can make people skeptical toward reports of rape, but as a campus we must gather together to support victims of sexual assault and to pursue justice.\nEvery one of us has a duty to watch out for our friends and to hold those who assault others responsible. There is no excuse for rape or assault. None. A lasting reduction of assault will come when every student and member of our community refuses to ignore the assaults and rapes that happen around us.