Are One In Five Women At North Dakota State University Facing "Sexual Violence?"

According to a study presented at a Sexual Violence Awareness Month event at North Dakota State University, more than one in five female students on that campus will face “sexual violence” during their time there.

Fargo, ND (WDAY TV) – NDSU staff is speaking out about the prevalence of sexual assault on campus.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and to increase awareness, the university is launching an educational pilot program for students.

Today’s event focused on the relationship between alcohol and sexual violence and the importance of sober consent.

NDSU’s latest study shows that about 21 percent of women on campus and 3 percent of men will experience sexual violence during their time at NDSU.

Sexual violence is nothing to trivialize, but is anyone else having a hard time buying that number? Did nobody hearing that number question it, or ask for more information? How about the reporters who heard it? All they did was accept it unquestioningly, and tuck it away into some rote article about a campus event?

Either those numbers are completely bogus, or they are using a really lose definition of “sexual violence.” If one out of five young women on NDSU’s campus were truly facing “sexual violence” you’d have parents lined up with torches and pitchforks. But I think it’s safe to say that’s not really happening.

If it were, administrators and campus cops at NDSU should be losing their jobs, and parents should be taking their kids elsewhere.

You have to wonder, does it really help the cause of awareness about sexual assaults in higher education to use a number that is so clearly not based in reality?

Meanwhile, NDSU will be hosting “internet feminist and sex positive sensations” Laci Green on campus to talk about how to have the best sex evah. 

Because that’s exactly what you want on a campus where, if we’re to believe university’s own number, one out of five women are facing sexual violence.