As you are aware, an opinion article was written last week regarding issues surrounding sexual assault and misperceptions related to it. As brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon we are writing to explain the importance of sexual assault awareness campaigns.

We want to make something abundantly clear — the victim is never to blame. It doesn’t matter what a person wears or what they choose to consume; sexual assault is never acceptable. Blaming someone for being drunk will never justify such a horrible thing happening to another human being.

We’ve had friends come to us, asking us for help because they were sexually assaulted and had no idea know what to do. They were fearful, shocked this would ever happen to them. No matter what data you look at, there exists an immense amount of victims who never report because they are so emotionally scarred or just want to move on, forgetting it ever happened.

Saying at a certain number of occurrences sexual assault is only “a serious problem [and] not a crisis” makes us irate. One is too many, and a statistic doesn’t calculate the burden victims must unwillingly carry with them for their entire life. 

Sexual assault campaigns are vital to ending this issue. Each member of SigEp completes the Mentors in Violence Prevention training, educating us to be active bystanders. Proceeds we raise go to the Cedar Valley Friends of the Family to help victims.

Leah Gutknecht, UNI’s Title IX Officer, supports these campaigns stating, “We’re proud of the ways UNI students have played an active role in addressing sexual misconduct. Our students are a critical part of our efforts.”

This has nothing to do with us feeling better about ourselves. It has everything to do with ensuring victims have the resources they need and more preventive action is taken.

-Hunter Flesch, NISG President

-Jared Riter, Sigma Phi Epsilon President