Within just a one-month span, three sexual assaults were reported at California State University, Northridge.
College campuses are meant to be safe places, but students are beginning to feel uneasy about the people that linger around the institution.
Twenty-two-year old journalism student April Sanchez says the recent reports of sexual violence on campus has affected her college experience.
"It definitely makes me more aware that being on campus doesn't necessarily make you safe," Sanchez says. "It worries me that campus security isn't doing their job properly or maybe there aren't enough staff. I think in general as a woman it makes me scared to be on campus after hours."
CSUN's newspaper, The Sundial, is keeping track of the campus police crime log to inform students of updated reports.
Nineteen-year-old e
"I think what's going on is horrible, but CSUN's doing a good job reporting what is going on because other universities keep it secret."
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, one in five women are raped at some point in their lives.
CSUN required all students to take an online course called Agent of Change, that covered information on sexual violence and how to respond. The Agent of Change was implemented to avoid future reports of sexual assault. Despite the fact that all students took the online course, sexual assault has only increased.
In addition, students were angered when the mandatory program was hacked and leaked everyone's personal information.
The university is starting a new sexual assault program for the men on campus to give them a chance to ask questions to clarify what constitutes as sexual assault.
The new program, called Project D.A.T.E, attempts to communicate with and educate male students on sexual assault and what may cause confusions that arise out of certain situations with women. The project will also develop a new male focus group called Men CARE (Creating Attitudes for Rape-free Environments) which creates education and awareness classes for men.
"Guys know how to appropriately approach women but the group is a great way for men to open up about their feelings and it might possibly help," David Agtarap, 22, who is studying business marketing, told The Odyssey.
CSUN's efforts to educate its students revolve around the fact that more reports of sexual assaults reported are from female victims than male. The university is taking all precautionary measures to stay on top of student safety.
"We need people going back home in groups to make it safer,"
While the university is taking steps in the right direction, they are not addressing all genders.
Twenty-two-year-old Naomi Rodriguez, a computer information technology major, thinks the training should target everyone.
"There should be a better a training that is inclusive of all genders," she told The Odyssey. "The focus tends to be on men only harassing women, but there are other types of harassment."
The spike in sexual assaults has prompted the Sundial to conduct an online survey asking how safe students feel on campus.
Agtarap told The Odyssey we need to make a unified effort to enforce safety on campus.
