Letter to the Editor: Numbers do not accurately represent sexual assault on campus
TO THE EDITOR:
In compliance with the Federally mandated Jeanne Clery Act, Central Michigan University reported three forcible sexual offenses in 2010, five in 2011, seven in 2012—one non-forcible—and eight in 2013.
In 2013, based on 26,841 students, CMU's rate of sexual assault per thousand students is 0.3 percent, which is not that different than other universities. Ferris State University has a rate of 0.3 percent, Eastern Michigan University's rate is 0.5 percent, Michigan State University's is 0.5 percent, Western Michigan University's is 0.5 percent, University of Michigan's is 0.5 percent and Wayne State University's rate is 0.2 percent.
This is quite contrary to the national press which reports that there is an "epidemic" of sexual assaults on college campuses and that students on college campuses are more in danger of being sexually assaulted than any other time or place in their lives.
According to national statistics, one in four females and one in 71 males will be sexually assaulted while attending college. In a White House Council on Women and Girls report, 7 percent of college men who admitted committing or attempting rape, and 63 percent admitted multiple offenses.
What is closer to the truth, that less than one in a thousand is the victim of a sexual assault, as CMU has reported to the federal government, or that hundreds are victims every year?
This can be answered. Speak Up, Speak Out is holding a forum on Sexual Assault on College Campuses at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Bovee Univeristy Center Auditorium. If the moderator would ask the audience to raise their hands if they know of anyone who has been sexually assaulted, and numbers CMU reported are true, then few, if any, hands should go up.
If it is more than that, then the problem is bigger than the university will admit to.
MATT MERTZ
CMU Alumnus
Mount Pleasant
