An FBI report about sexual assault states that one out of every five women will be sexually assaulted within her lifetime.

In an attempt to understand why sexual assault is such a large problem on campus, the NIU Sexual Assault Task Force turned to students last week and asked for their help to lessen the number of assaults.

Blanche McHugh, NIU training and student development coordinator, and Chris Porterfield, assistant director of orientation and student assistance—both members of the Sexual Assault Task Force—met with students Thursday to discuss why sexual assault happens and possible preventative measures students can take to avoid assault.

Porterfield said that although a “buddy system” of students working together and escorting each other home is a good possibility for prevention of stranger rape, NIU’s assault problem mostly stems from acquaintance rape and date rape.

He said that acquaintance rape occurs when a person is sexually assaulted by someone she knows, and date rape occurs when a person is assaulted by someone she has been dating for a period of time.

McHugh told students that to begin acquaintance-rape and date-rape prevention, it is important for female students to express their feelings about sexual assault to their male friends. She said males need to be told that when their dates say “no,” they mean “no.”

“Women need to be assertive. They need to say no clearly. They need to be very clear about what they don’t want,” McHugh said.

Porterfield said that males have a responsibility to listen to women and to hear them when they say no. “When a man hears ‘no’ he needs to ask the woman if he is supposed to stop so that there is no confusion. He hears ‘no,’ but he might think he is hearing ‘maybe’ or ‘yes.'”

McHugh said that many men will not accept the fact that they have committed rape if they are dating their victims. She said the male also will be traumatized because he will be arrested for something he believes he has not done.

McHugh said another issue with sexual assault is how a woman handles herself during the assault. If the woman does not shout or try to be violent back to her assaulter, she often is scorned by society, McHugh said. However, “Some people just aren’t violent people, and no matter what a person does to them, they cannot react violently,” she said.

Porterfield said a victim should not blame herself for an assault. “Dress and actions have nothing to do with it. If you don’t want it, it’s rape.”