Megan Vogt | Opinion Co-Editor

First of all, I wanted to start out and say this: “Thank you BVU for raising awareness.” Early Tuesday morning, I was sitting in class when I received an e-mail from a professor inviting a whole group of students to an ACES event. As much fun as that doesn’t sound, since I’m done with the ACES program, I felt that this was definitely one to attend. With all the controversy in the past few years regarding the subject of sexual assault, Buena Vista University (BVU) finally brought in someone to speak. For this ACES, Mark Dawson talked about safe dating, consent, communication, and sexual assault awareness. Dawson goes around the United States presenting his presentation, “Hookin’ Up and Gettin’ Some.”

Dawson started out his presentation with his favorite quote: “Be more responsible for how you think, what you believe, and how you behave.” With people taking into account these three small things, we can save a lot of pain and suffering. He then led into speaking about the four main needs of a relationship: empowerment, communication, respect, and knowledge. Dawson did a wonderful job keeping the crowd entertained and energetic with skits and activities. It was really amazing to see how many people showed up for this ACES, and I applaud the faculty and staff for putting in the extra effort getting students to attend this event because the turn out was great!

I was grateful as soon as I opened up the e-mail and saw that BVU is taking the initiative of having someone coming to campus to speak about this issue. After all the problems last year with sexual assaults on campus, why is this only an ACES event and not required for everyone? I believe everyone needs to be informed about this problem, as we saw all the issues that came up last year. Around the country, Mark said that one in four women and one in six men are sexually assaulted. Out of all these people, 85% of the rape victims know their perpetrator. This isn’t just an issue at BVU, but it’s happening everywhere. Talking to a friend this week, I was informed that he knows of two female friends specifically who have both been sexually assaulted. When trying to talk to the authorities about the first situation, they were blown off, and when the second situation occurred, they turned toward each other because they assumed no one would listen. This is a scary situation, and no one should have to go through victimization. Thank you BVU for finally taking the stance to raise the awareness needed.

Photos by Tyson Domingo

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