Sexual Assault Awareness Week is this week. The sponsors are attempting to make an impact on students to make them think a little more about sexual assault and rape.

Senior Amy Ackerman is one of the five people heading this event. The goal of the week is “to prevent future assaults from happening and to create awareness on our campus,” Ackerman said.

Ackerman also wants people to know that the week is geared toward both females and males. Ackerman, Joe Campe, Nena Myrick, Tiffany Myers and Nicole Wunderland put Sexual Assault Awareness Week together in order to stop violence on the University of Denver campus and in our communities.

The week kicked off Monday, with booths set up on Driscoll Bridge offering pamphlets, whistles and sign-up sheets for the events later on in the week. The booths were set up all week to help people with questions or concerns.

On Tuesday, students volunteered at numerous battered women’s shelters. Wednesday night a self-defense class was conducted by a Tae Kwon Do professional in the Centennial Towers Lounge.

Ending the week will be a speaker from Rape Assistance and Awareness (RAAP) discussing how “It could happen to you” in Lindsey Auditorium tonight, followed by a safety walk to point out the emergency phones and a vigil.

Denver’s rates for rape, murder and assault are higher than the national averages.

In most cases, the victims believed that it was a private or personal matter and they feared reprisal from the assailant.

One out of four women have experienced sexual assault. Approximately 68 percent of rape victims knew their assailant.

Teenagers between 16 and 19 were 3.5 times more likely than the general population to be victims of rape attempted rape, or sexual assault according to the 1996 National Crime Victimization Survey.

For information on preventing sexual assalt and staying safe, contact the Department of Residence at prevention@dor.du.edu.