COLLEGE STATION, Texas — All month long, Texas A&M University is bringing awareness to sexual assault prevention and offering resources to Aggies.
According to Texas A&M University Police, there have been four cases of sexual assault filed this year, and six cases reported in 2022.
“When I was a freshman, someone from a different university actually confided in me something that had happened to her, and I felt helpless because I didn’t know where to refer her to, what to do, or what resources were available to her for her to get help,” said Vanessa Garcia, Graduate Assistant, Health Promotions.
Garcia decided she never wanted to feel helpless again, and decied to seek out available resources in the area.
“There’s someone in their corner — whether that’s at A&M or whether that’s at a community organization — there’s someone always in their corner to help them out whether they’re ready to speak about their experience or not or whether they know someone that has been impacted by this violence,” Garcia said.
“It’s the building block of why we get involved, because if we don’t recognize it as an issue and we can’t identify what sexual violence is in our community and what’s happening, or we choose to remain silent about it instead of getting involved, we don’t really help anything. We’re not helping the cause,” said Denise Crisafi, Health Promotion Coordinator, Student Life at TAMU.
Jon Hill is a health promotion specialist in Student Life and is helping make a difference by destigmatizing men and sexual violence.
“Anyone can experience sexual violence, and so men or male identified individuals can also experience sexual assault,” Hill said.
Hill also says anyone can have characteristics of masculinity.
“Your story is your story and to share that story is very powerful for other folks, because there aren’t many men that will openly share that experience or share what happened to them,” Hill said.
Megan Woodfield, also a health promotion specialist with Student Life says one of the goals of this month is to help people not feel helpless.
“This is an issue that does impact everyone because so often folks feel uncomfortable talking about it and there’s a lot of that stigma but also really making sure that we’re getting out resources and information to folks so that if they have been going through this — if they know somebody — then they can really help support those that have been impacted,” Woodfield said.
“If sexual assault happened to you, it doesn’t make you less of a man,” Hill said.
“I think that having the ability to have those open conversations and that dialogue, it makes the world a better place.”
Denise Crisafi is also a health promotion specialist with Student Life.
“We want our community and our students and our colleagues to know that being proactive is the most important thing and if we can create a culture where people are informed, they know about resources, they are just showing up — we can build a lot of trust with individuals where we’re more stepping in to stop this issue rather than waiting for it to happen before we do something,” Crisafi said.
For more about sexual assault prevention and awareness on Texas A&M’s campus.