In the days and weeks following an increase in reported sexual assaults on campus, MSU officials, student organizations and students say they're reacting by improving awareness and safety.
About 75 students from Emmons and Butterfield halls attended a mandatory meeting on personal safety Monday night.
"We wanted to educate students and allow them to ask the experts questions," Emmons Hall Resident Director Qiana Smith said.
A majority of the attendees were men, said Jayne Schuiteman, personal safety coordinator for the MSU Women's Resource Center.
"Female safety is not just a female issue," Sexual Assault Program counselor Barb Walkington said. "Males are responsible for how they treat women, as well as for watching other men."
Attendees groaned loudly when they learned the meeting would last two hours. A few walked out as the meeting continued, and twice the panelists scolded students for not taking the meeting "seriously."
Shortly after the first rapes were reported, MSU's Self-Defense Club held a program at the Brody Hall Complex. Attendance was large than at other similar programs held about three times a week across campus, instructor and interdisciplinary humanities junior Dyana Males said.
"They were pretty timid, they didn't say why they were there," Males said before a class last week in Wonders Hall. "They didn't share anything about what was going on."
The programs in Brody and Wonders halls had been scheduled before the alleged assaults took place, fellow coordinator and mathematics senior Sarah Goodrich said.
Several days after the self-defense class, ASMSU Women's Council members discussed the sexual assaults at their Sept. 15 meeting.
Council co-director and English senior Anne Bresler said the group might introduce legislation to MSU's undergraduate student government regarding rape education.
"We want to make sure it coincides with anything the administration is doing," Bresler said.
Lee June, vice president of student affairs, said talk of adopting a safety program has been ongoing. Last year, a local group Affirmative Reaction made a list of demands to model a program for freshmen after a system at the University of Illinois.
"It's an issue that's still alive," June said. "At the moment we're going to look systematically at the University of Illinois for something similar we could adopt."
The University of Illinois has a program requiring incoming freshman spend four hours learning about safety and sexual assaults on campus.
The variety of classes, meetings and discussions are being held on a campus that has seen six alleged sexual assaults since Sept. 2.
The most recent was an alleged rape Saturday night during tailgating by the tennis courts. MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor said she couldn't get more specific on the location because of continued investigation concerning the 20-year-old MSU student.
Saturday's rape has accelerated debate on possibly regulating tailgating. When June met Tuesday with the Women's Advisory Committee to the Vice President for Student Affairs, he said both sexual assaults and responsible celebration came up.
Today, an MSU student charged with sexually assaulting an 18-year-old Emmons Hall resident Sept. 2 appears in court for his pre-trial. The student, marketing freshman Travis Eichten, could face 15 years in prison if he's convicted.
For information on sexual assault, visit msu.edu/~wrc.
