New residents at Stan State are now responsible for their own safety. It is essential for female students to know how to recognize sexual violence that can occur and the resources that are available to victims should they face an instance of sexual assault.

A 2016 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics on campus climates, published on the site Inside Higher Ed, found that “One in five female undergraduates have experienced some kind of sexual assault while in college.”

For some students, there is only a feeling of intuition that can help her decide if certain situations are safe or dangerous. “I usually have a gut feeling when I am about to get into a bad situation,” Destinee Phillips, a freshman resident of the dorms, said. “There was a time walking to my dorm after my night class (7 pm-10 pm), where there was a suspicious man that seemed to be following me….,” Phillips recalled.

Despite incidents like these, Stan State is committed to ensuring the safety of students.

“Basically everything we do is hopefully contributing to the safety of women on our campus,” Officer Cheri Silveira of the University Police Department (UPD) said.

“From our vehicle/foot/Segway patrols on campus, contacting suspicious persons, monitoring the emergency blue lights, talking about safety in new student orientations, having our Warrior Safety Shuttles at night for escorts and teaching our Rape Aggression Defense classes for women, all of this combined, hopefully keeps our campus safe and our females ‘in the know’ about the dangers out there,” Silveira said.

These resources have and will continue to help prevent sexual violence at Stan State. Our officers on campus work countless hours making sure students are safe and taken care of. The school is doing what they can to make students living on campus feel comfortable in the place they call home.

In the past, there have been several sexual violence cases recorded on campus. Stan State’s Turlock Campus Annual Security Report for 2017 included 6 cases of rape, 3 cases of stalking, 3 cases of dating violence and 2 cases of domestic violence recorded for the year.

Living in the dorms on campus has its upsides, too. In some cases not having to be told what to do or when to go to bed is great, but having certain supervisions might have been taken for granted. Anytime there has been a warning given about certain precautions that should be taken it is for a reason.

Officer Silveira gave the following advice for students to keep themselves safe:

“If you are drinking, make sure to either:

1. Don’t drink to the point of incoherency or

2. Have a sober friend who is trustworthy to watch out for you. (This requires trust as that friend could forget to keep an eye on you).

3. Don’t leave your drink unattended. If you have, discard and get a new one,” Silveira said.

“If you are dating, blind or otherwise:

1. Know where you are going and let a friend/family member know where and who you are with.

2. Don’t go to secluded places with someone you don’t know well.

3. Be aware of your surroundings.

4. In a crowded place, don’t leave your drink unattended. If you have, discard and get a new one. I repeat this because too often someone’s drink is ‘spiked’ with a drug. This usually leads to a sexual assault.”

College is an experience within itself and there are ways students can ensure it is a great one. Making the right decisions and realizing that horrible things including sexual violence can happen is a step towards preventing these instances from occurring.

Living on campus, there are students available to consult with other students for any type of issue. These students include Housing Office Associates, Residential Assistants and Peer Academic Mentors. These students care about the safety of residents and take their positions seriously.

“Housing does a great job on training Residential Assistants (RAs) and Peer Academic Leaders (PALs),” Residential Assistant Destiny Cano said. “We are a student-centered community that strives to provide a safe and supportive environment. We train for a whole month, daily covering various topics, sexual assault being one of them. Part of training is that we meet with Title IX, and they educate us on sexual violence/assault, sexual harassment, being a bystander and giving consent.”

“PAL” Eduardo Sanchez related the safety of females living on campus to the worry he has experienced from having a mother and sister of his own. “My sister, she walks to school and comes back and runs errands by herself, and that is a scary situation because she’ll run errands at night. The thing that my mom is always saying is, ‘Be careful, you don’t know what can happen, and take company when you go somewhere,” Sanchez said.

No matter how safe of a school Stan State is expressed to be, it is still the responsibility of the student to avoid risky situations. This school can only do so much.