It's common knowledge that students are fed up with how MSU has handled its sexual assault cases and the decisions that follow. 

Whether it's allowing a student's rapist back on campus for graduation, paying a known rape apologist to speak at commencement or failing to close a sexual assault case in a timely manner, the message from students is clear: MSU needs to get its act together when it comes to handling sexual assault.

Back in April 2014, a State News investigation found MSU had allowed a sexual assault case to drag on for 285 days — well outside the bounds of its own 120-day deadline, and certainly outside the 60-day deadline mandated by the 2011 "Dear Colleague" letter, which introduced guidelines for Title IX compliance. 

The MSU community didn't need a federal office to confirm what it could already blatantly see. What we do need, however, is for MSU to clearly outline the steps it plans to take to remedy this ongoing issue.

And MSU has, to some extent. Later this month, a sexual assault climate survey will be released to help better "guide decisions and policies regarding sexual assault in the campus community," and MSU plans on forming a new sexual violence advisory panel, revising policies and review panels and hearing more student input on the issue, according to a statement released Tuesday. 

But The State News Editorial Board is asking MSU to take their approach one step further by mandating every student attend the Sexual And Relationship Violence (SARV) workshops during their first semester, and disenrolling those who don't. Currently, SARV workshops are mandatory, but there is no consequence if students don't go. 

While the SARV workshop facilitators take attendance before and after the presentation, no punishment is set in stone to ensure all new students go. Furthermore, the class is taught only by peer educators — fellow students — when it should be supplemented with professors, counselors, or other experts on the topic. 

Knowing how to identify and report sexual violence and harassment will only improve a student's college experience and safety, and is well worth the few hours they sacrifice to attend the workshop.

MSU is one of the best universities in Michigan — but if it doesn't teach it's students how to recognize and combat one of the largest societal issues plaguing young people, it is failing to function as a place of learning, and is missing an opportunity to positively impact the lives of many.

And as Spartans, we will not stand for that.