Students had the opportunity to discuss sexual assault at the recent “We Need To Talk: A St. Edward’s Community Dialogue on Sexual Assault” town hall.

The town hall, held on Monday, was the first event sponsored by a St. Edward’s University Student Government Association student committee formed under the White House “It’s On Us” campaign.

Junior Victoria Ochoa, who helped start the campaign’s committee in October, oversaw the discussion along with SGA President Samantha Mendoza, junior Anthony Longoria and senior Amanda West.

The Dean of Students Office, the Health and Counseling Center, and Title IX representatives were also in attendance to answer questions and help moderate. Yet the goal was to have a “student-led discussion,” Ochoa said.

After an introduction to how “It’s On Us” focuses on culture change at the student level, the audience in attendance was asked to start the conversation under the prompt of three main discussion questions:

• How do you feel sexual assault impacts students on college campus?
• Why and how does this happen in our community and on college campuses across the nation?
• What are we doing about sexual assault and are we doing enough to address this issue? 

Initial concerns revolved around the transparency and availability of resources and services on campus. 

Sophomore Breanna Correll, who researched the issue of campus sexual assault for her American Dilemmas class, told the audience she had a hard time accessing the safety reports that indicate how many sexual assaults have taken place on campus.

Released yearly, the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report has been available on the University Police Department page of the St. Edward’s website since October. Universities are required to release this information by law.

During the course of the two-hour town hall, the Dean of Students office updated its Title IX site to make the safety report more accessible.

“A lot of you are sharing information that’s helpful to us administrators,” Dean of Students Lisa Kirkpatrick said. 

Senior Jackie Shicker voiced an opinion echoed by many concerning the constriction of the conversation at St. Edward’s, a Catholic university.

“It’s difficult to talk about sexual assault on campus because we never talk about sex on campus,” she said.

Kirkpatrick said that her office (Main Building 208) is always open for students to voice their concerns. 

“If you want to talk about sex, we’ll talk about sex,” Kirkpatrick said.

The dean referenced her own office as well as the Health and Counseling Center and Residence Life as possible resources.   

In expanding on the topic of what has served as taboo in the conversation around sexual assault, several in the audience argued that both women’s and men’s identity issues play a role. 

“Young men don’t know how to talk about this with each other,” senior Kurt Metscher said.

Less than a dozen of those who attended the town hall were male; 80 to 90 people attended.

“I think it’s obvious that the people who need to hear all this aren’t here,” Metscher said.

Next semester, the committee hopes to create an event that will engage the male student body.

“We don’t want to target them, we just want to better acknowledge this as everybody’s issue,” Ochoa said.