By Dana Anquoe
Oklahoma City
I would like to thank The Daily Universe for printing the article on sexual assault. I have been here at BYU for four years, though I have only been in school for three, and I, too, have become complacent in my walking to and from campus alone, especially south of the Testing Center.
I have always heard the statistic that “one in six women will be raped at some point in their lifetime,” but that never came so close to home as when a very close friend of mine came out to Utah to bide time until her mission and was raped in her own apartment. This event sent her spiraling downward for about a year and a half before she finally recovered. Needless to say, she did not go on a mission. Though she is now happily married and pregnant with her first child, there are still effects from the rape that sometimes surface.
I hope that this newly heightened awareness of rape and sexual assault will help people to understand that “The Lord’s University” has no gates to keep predators out. We need to be acutely aware of the dangers that surround us and recognize that it is not just up to the university to protect us by making dark places lighter and secluded places more open.
It is also up to us to secure our safety by using common sense. Don’t go jogging in the middle of the night, scantily clad and by yourself. That is just one of the annoying examples of the lack of common sense some people have on this campus.
If anything, I just hope that letters like mine and the one that was written on Oct. 15 called “Wake up to realities of assault” will raise the level of awareness. Hopefully the occurrence of sexual assault will be lowered, if not obliterated, by combining the university’s efforts with our own efforts to gain more common sense and awareness.
