. Page'4A - Wednesday, September 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com Page 4A - Wednesday, September 24, 2014 The Michigan Daily michigandailycom C ihigan Batip Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890. 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com MEGAN MCDONALD PETER SHAHIN and DANIEL WANG KATIE BURKE EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. A crisis of ignorance Sexual assault on campus can be reduced through education Sexual assault on college campuses is enabled by a multi- tude of influences, but cultural perceptions of women and sex undoubtedly have a significant effect. While ill-intent may play an undeniable role in many sexual assaults, ignorance and societal factors are equally at work, if not more influential. Educating university students and faculty about sexual assault may not directly help survivors, but creating a foundation of knowledge and compassion could potentially prevent these awful crimes from happening in the first place. Focusing on tc When I told Dan Wang, the editorial page editor of The Michigan Daily that I wouldn't have this column submitted on time, he told me to take the week off. He'd find a l way to fill the content on short notice. While DEREK I am beyond appreciative WOLFE of his support, I didn't and couldn't listen. The truth is that this week, especially, I needed to write. I needed a chance to muse and reflect in between studying for my upcoming exams and papers. Let me tell you why. Last Wednesday my step- grandmother - Nani, as her family knew her - passed away. Though I have included the "step" designation, by all accounts she was my grandmother. No question about it. She loved and treated me as one of her own, even thoughI came into her life nearly nine years after I was born. To her, it didn't matter, and I could not be more grateful. Not many people can say they had three grandmothers who deeply cared about them. I'm lucky Ann Arbor is so close to my family because on Tuesday night, my stepbrother drove us to the hospital in West Bloomfield, where I had a chance to say goodbye one last time. Her brutal battle in and out of rehabilitation centers due to heart problems and several falls ended its final chapter. Of course, death of family and friends happens to everyone. My situation isn't unique, and I don't want to portray it as such. That beingsaid, despite all that is written about death, it gets overlooked that coping never gets easy. At least in my experience. We had known her days were numbered since January. The next time she would have to go to the hospital would likely be the end. So naturally, I, and I'm sure the rest of my family, tried to mentally prepare for her departure from this-earth. It started as an occasional thought, butthe feelings accelerated significantly after hearing she was back in the hospital last week. The outlook from a broken hip in old age is nearly always grim. "She'll no longer be suffering," I told myself. "No one should have to live like she did over the past year." And so for a while I thought I'd be fine. It was her time to go. You have the funeral. You sit Shiva (if you're Jewish). You move on knowing that you had great times together. And for a couple of days, that was my mindset. However, after being updated by my dad last Wednesday evening that she was in her final moments, memories started rushing back to me. This was going to be harder than' I thought. All the preparing I had done was for naught. Eventhoughshewasunconscious the previous evening when I saw her, I felt emptier knowing that she was actually gone. A woman who had affected my life in so many positive ways wasn't there in flesh anymore and would never be again. There was never going.to be a day next time. There would be no more family dinners with her there. No more conversations about school and life. The days at her pool where she would feed us until we were bloated were all officially just wonderful memories now. She could no longer tell me how she was going to bake cookies for me and mail them to Ann Arbor. I never received that package. And now I never will. She was a wonderful, generous lady who sported an incredible hairstyle - a blonde poof. I know I said it earlier, but I'm so thankful to have known her and loved her. And that made this past weekend especially difficult. Preparing for a loved one's death feels like a natural thing to do. We want to cope as best we can. Sure, you want to get some logistical details in order, like funeral arrangements, but the reality is that the mental gymnastics isn't worth it. It's impossible to prepare. You're going to fall down at some point. And you know what, that's OK. Because to put it bluntly, mourning sucks, and forcing yourself to "keep it together" doesn't prove anything to anyone. There's nothing wrong with letting emotion take over, at least for a little while. We only have so much control over our thoughts, so it just makes sense to exhibit control as best we can. We can do this by fully enjoying the time we have with the people we love. Stay in the present. That's why it's agift. I think that's how the sayinggoes. Derek Wolfe can be reached at dewolfe@umich.edu. According to the controversial first report published April 2014 by Not Alone, a White House Task Force created by President Barack Obama in an attempt to address sexual assault on college campuses, approximately one in five women ranging from freshmen to seniors indicated that they had been sexually assaulted at some time during their college experience. Despite typical critiques of data sampling, each one of these responses indicate an individual scarred by the traumatic experience of sexual assault who felt the need to share this information for a greater good. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has their hands full investigating78 universities charged with mishandling sexual assault cases on their campuses, including the University of Michigan. In a study conducted by the Air Force Academy in 2003, female students who came forward to talk about their experiences described the problem of sexual assault as "widespread and the product of a culture hostile toward women." Advocates for Human Rights and The First World Report on Violence and Health indicate that :sexual assault seems to correlate with social conditions - societies that honor male physical aggressiveness, entitlement and dominance generally have higher numbers of sexual assault. Further exploration of sexual roles of the "male aggressor" and the "demure female" finds that "No" is seen as a kind of obstacle that the male must overcome because he is "not convinced she means it." * This kind of aggression is unfortunately well known on the college party scene. In this regard, the University's Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center notes on their website, "Alcohol use may raise certain expectations about gender under the influence of alcohol. Men/masculine individuals may feel as though they are expected to be sexually/ physically aggressive, and may also ascribe to discourse about the sexual availability of women/feminine individuals who drink." Faced with the facts that nearly one in five women will be sexually assaulted during college, that 78 universities are under federal investigation for mishandling of sexual assault cases, and our culture is primed with male sexual entitlement and the objectification of women, it's not a question of should the University do something to stop this alarming trend; it's what are the fastest and most effective means of preventing sexual assault on our campus? If society does deserve some blame for these sexual abuses, then part of the problem must lie in how students think of and understand it. A 2010 study by The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at the University of Indiana found 10.9 percent of survey respondents don't consider it "having sex"if there's noejaculation,29 and 27.1 percent don't consider performing or receiving oral sex to be sex, respectively, and 55.1 percent don't consider touching or manually stimulating a partner's genitals to be sex either, indicating that many sex-related crimes may be attributed to ignorance. These blurred or misguided definitions of what constitutes a sex act may lead to sexual assault if the offender doesn't consider certain acts tobe "real" sex. The legal definition of sexual assault generally refers to any unwanted sexual activity. The 2010 study's findings point toward a societal failure to adequately educate people about sex and therefore sexual assault. Current sex education briefly explains what sex is and the different ways to have sex while thoroughly covering sexually transmitted diseases. Sexual abuse, however, is often not covered or simply skimmed over, making it appear less important. A more productive route would be to educate students from a young age, eventually developing a working knowledge of sex and its potential for abuse as students come of age. Confronting this issue head-on would force students to consider the seriousness of sexual assault as much as, if not more than, the other risks of sex. However, changes made for younger generations still leaves the current student body without any immediate confrontation with issues surrounding sex and sexual assault. To compensate for this, the University should lead the way by addressing problematic cultural norms and educating students about sexual rights. It's unreasonable and unrealistic to place all responsibility for student safety on the University, but the school clearly cares about the well-being of its students and can do more to protect them. This begins with educating and engaging the student body in a continuous discussion about sex and