In the United States, one in three women, and one in six men experienced some type of sexual violence during their lives. Amongst undergraduate students, 23.1% of females and 5.4% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.
Sexual assault has become a phenomenon that has affected our society for years. It created movements like #MeToo, which then developed into more local movements like WeCanDUBetter.
This specific forum consists in current and former DU students submitting their stories about sexual assault anonymously, to be shared publicly on the WeCanDUBetter Instagram account. They currently have 59 posts up on their account, including a plea for the University to take sexual assault on campus more seriously.
“I was really shocked to read all the posts,” Anna de Andrada, a current sophomore at the University explained, “I did not expect DU to be so reckless and indifferent about girls suffering from sexual assault.”
A great majority of the stories posted explained that when the individuals reported the incidents to the University, little to nothing was done about the situation at hand. Survivors seem to be brushed aside by the University as a whole; and also smaller organizations on campus.
“There was one [story] that I was reading on the page where the survivor went to [fraternity] to report the incident,” expressed Shannon Clough, a current member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority, “… who then was told like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, it was dealt with in [fraternity]’. All [fraternity] did was like ‘Guys, you can’t rape girls’. There was no effort to find who did it or punishment.”
A number of the stories posted on this account mention incidents happening within Greek life organizations, specifically fraternities. A majority of the fraternities on campus have been mentioned at least once on the account, making it a target for backlash. The account has been reported on Instagram and unable to make posts several times since it was created.
“They’re trying to deal with this in a delicate manner and also not demonizing [anyone],” Clough explained, “… They are after the specific individuals who committed these crimes […] Since there’s no way that, for example, every member of one fraternity is a bad guy. There’s probably one bad guy that did all these things.”
There is a debate between students when it comes to the actions the University should follow when it comes to these reports. Some of them believe that the University isn’t doing enough to protect these survivors; while others believe that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes.
“I’m sure that if the University hasn’t acted yet, I’m sure there’s something else going on,” expressed Gabriel Del Toro, a current member of the Sigma Chi fraternity, “[…] What I’m trying to say is, I have no idea. Maybe they’re doing something about it, or planning on doing so, or maybe they can’t do anything because of legalities.”
A couple days ago, the University released this response through Title IX, where they expressed their stance on this topic. However, there have been no reports of the perpetrators of these crimes being sought out or punished.
“I think that when students go up to the University to report sexual assaults, DU shouldn’t dismiss the incident,” Andrada explained “The University should actually confront the person who committed the crime; because these people keep on doing so […] because no action is being taken against them.”
WeCanDUBetter is planning a silent protest this Tuesday at Carnegie green, where people can show their support to survivors and spread awareness about sexual assault on campus.
The MFJS Reporter -- Winter 2020 T-R 
I definitely think this is a very important issue that needs to be talked about. College campuses all around the world need to do a better job of dealing with sexual assault, especially DU, and I think you described the severity/importance of this well. I’m glad the silent protest is mentioned at the end of the story, it’s a good way of wrapping the story up and providing a “next step” at the same time.
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