TEEN CENTER :: COLLEGE CENTER :: FRESHMAN JOURNAL

November 2002

Protecting Yourself
From Abuse

By Caitlin Noris
Special to The Wall Street Journal

One of the mantras you hear while at college is to get involved.  Orientation included an activities fair in which all the student organizations set up booths and attempted to entice overwhelmed freshman into joining the Asian Student Alliance, Habitat for Humanity, Karate Club, Renaissance Revival, and every other club imaginable. One organization that caught my eye was the Sexual Assault Peer Education Group. 

I spoke to the girl managing the booth, and found out that Sexual Assault Peer Educators attempt to inform the student body about date rape, stranger rape, and how alcohol and drug abuse can put students in danger. I was looking for a program that would allow me to better my community and help me practice my public speaking skills, and it seemed to be the perfect mix.  After a short application and interview process, I started my training along with three other girls and one guy.

Although I have only been in training for a little under a month, I have learned some important things that I believe deserve more attention from the media.  Sexual assault is a real problem across America’s college campuses.  At the University of Pittsburgh, a student is raped once a week. Most of these rapes do not happen in dark alleyways, but at parties or on dates. Statistically speaking, most victims are freshman, and most attacks occur in September, when school is just starting, or during Spring Break.

Therefore, the problem is that high school seniors are coming into college and are in general clueless about drinking, drugs, and partying. Freshman girls sometimes will make themselves easy targets by not communicating strongly enough or being passive, due to either intoxication or not really being sure what their sexual limits are.  Freshman guys may find that peer pressure and alcohol can impair their judgment and destroy their personal control.

I know that the first time most teenagers encounter alcohol or drugs is not college.  Sometimes, they have been doing those things for years. But college is completely different.  It is not about getting buzzed anymore, but seeing who can do the longest keg stand. It is not about having two beers, but about drinking more than a six-pack after taking three shots.  More importantly, you are drinking yourself into a stupor with people you barely know.  Most of the time, these students will come out fine.  They wake up with a hangover and some embarrassing stories.  Unfortunately, some wake up with much larger problems.

Right now, you are filling out college applications and writing essays about the most important person in your life.  You are preparing for the SAT or ACT and studying vocabulary lists.  You are figuring out who to take to senior homecoming or where to go for your last spring break with your high school friends.  But while you are doing all that, take some time out to think about how you are going to act when you finally arrive at college. Decide what your sexual limitations are and want kind of person you want to be. The first step in protecting yourself from date rape and/or other problems resulting from alcohol abuse is knowing yourself.  It is only by doing this that you can truly protect yourself once you are on campus.

Caitlin Noris, originally from Miami, Fla., is a freshman at the University of Pittsburgh. Her Freshman Journal will be updated periodically on the Classroom Edition Web site.