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As college life has started back up in our community, it is important to talk about sexual violence on college campuses. Women ages 18-24 are at an elevated risk of sexual violence.

College women in this age group are three times more likely to experience sexual violence. College men ages 18-24 are 78% more likely to become a victim of sexual violence than non-students of the same age. In addition, there is a time known as 鈥淭he Red Zone鈥� when college students are statistically at a higher risk for sexual assault. This time frame is from the first day on campus to Thanksgiving break.

When it comes to reporting sexual assaults, only 20% of female student victims in this age group report to law enforcement. Some reasons for not reporting to law enforcement are victims believed it was a personal matter, they did not want the perpetrator to get in trouble, and some believed that police would not or could not do anything to help. Of these victims, 4% said that they reported it to someone, but not to law enforcement.

Although it may not seem like there is a lot you can do to help prevent something like this from happening there are some important things to remember when going out with your friends. You can be an active bystander by doing the following:

Direct: You can call out behavior you see as not being appropriate. You can call out the individual that is creating this negative behavior or you can go directly to the victim to make sure that they are okay. In this situation, be careful not to make it worse and remain calm when communicating with each party.

Distract: You can intervene by changing the conversation with either party which can help get the victim away from the situation without the offender realizing what is going on.

Delegate: If you do not feel comfortable stepping in yourself, you can ask someone else to step in to help the situation. Noticing a situation that doesn鈥檛 look appropriate is the first step in helping the victim get out of it.

Delay: You can always walk away from the situation, but keep in mind this means checking in on the victim after a certain amount of time has passed. You may walk away because the situation looks like it could escalate if someone tries to step in. You could also walk away because although the situation may look bad, it may not be what is happening. Just ensure that you check on the victim after a period of time has passed or report to the proper people so someone else can check in on the victim.

Support Within Reach can help in this situation. If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual violence, I am an advocate with office hours at Bemidji State University and at Northwest Technical College. You can connect with Lifestyle Educators for Support Within Reach鈥檚 campus office hours schedule.

Please note that the on-campus advocate can meet a student at any time that works with their schedule and on any weekday.

You can reach me at (218)-444-9524 or s.halbert@supportwithinreach.org. If you are not a student, trained advocates are available and ready to help you. Reach out to Support Within Reach at our 24/7 crisis hotlines: (800) 708-2727 in Beltrami, Clearwater, Hubbard and Cass, or (866) 747-5008 in Itasca and Aitkin Counties.

For more information about Support Within Reach, visit

Sky Halbert is a program coordinator, development outreach and victim services at BSU/NTC and a support systems coordinator.