Before then, I never walked with my keys between my fingers, ready to use them as weapons if need be.

Before then, I wasn’t uneasy every time a member of the opposite sex walked past me on the street. I hadn’t researched self-defense. I didn’t yet know that the elbow is the strongest part of the body and should be used in case of an attack.

But the headlines and reports of sexual harassment are more and more frequent. First the trial of Oswald Scott Wilder and then another reported attack in the stairwell of the Chemistry Building.

After reading these series of stories in my eight short weeks here at MSU, I’m worried. Sexual assault isn’t just being committed by crack addicts in dark alleyways. It’s happening in lit stairwells inside the buildings of our university — stairwells I thought were safe.

These unnerving reports have taken my trust, my naivety. My innocent assumption that there are no “bad” people in the world — that rapists, kidnappers and sexual assailants only existed within the 60 minutes of the nighttime news shows my mom watched.

But somehow, they have managed to climb out of the television, confident enough to assault a woman in the stairwell of the Chemistry Building, as police reports show.

I bought my first can of Mace last Monday, and I felt myself choking up because I didn’t feel safe for the first time in my sheltered life. I’ll admit that. I came from a small town where I could walk the streets past 9 p.m. and feel secure. And now I feel like I need to be on high alert to stay safe.

This idea was reinforced when I attended the Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Prevention Program (SARV) workshop, required for all first-year students. The workshop, I thought, was extremely helpful in laying out definitions, scenarios and giving students solutions to potential sexual assault situations.

One thing that shook me, however, were the blatant snickers and joking that came from a group of young men clustered in the back of the room. Each time anything about rape or sex was mentioned, this group seemed to almost burst out in giggles. I’m not sure if it was from nervousness, immaturity or a combination of the two.

I couldn’t help but think that maybe these snickers, giggles and wry smiles were part of the obvious sexual harassment problem this campus faces. By not taking the workshop seriously, this group of students reinforced the incorrect idea that the subject matter was unimportant.

That group didn’t seem to care that one in four women will experience sexual harassment on campus, or that one in seven men report experiencing it, too. They didn’t seem to get understand only 26 percent of sexual assaults are committed by a stranger, with an overwhelming number of cases showing the perpetrator as someone the victim knew.

They simply munched on snacks they swiped from the cafeteria, chatted and signed their names to get credit for going.

I understand not all students will take the workshop seriously and some might not even attend — but for the sake of educating and protecting yourself as well as those around you, I strongly encourage you to do so.

One phrase I heard multiple times throughout the workshop still remains stuck in my mind. It went something like: “Sexual assault is not just something we can hire more police officers to stop. It happens all over, in our most intimate spaces. In dorm rooms, hallways, at parties. The only way we can stop it is by looking out for one another. Sexual harassment and assault is not just a women’s issue. It’s a people issue.”

Read more for tips on defending yourself.

Olivia Dimmer is a State News staff reporter. Reach her at odimmer@statenews.com.