By Jalen Wade

On Wednesday, April 17, campus organization Preventing Sexual Assault (PSA)  held its fourth annual Occupy McKeldin event. The goal of the eight-hour event is to provide an outlet for survivors and listeners to learn, share and promote advocacy against sexual assault.

Speakers in attendance helped educate the crowd on the importance of knowing how to prevent sexual assault. According PSA’s Facebook page, the group’s main objective is to show administration through open communication and spreading awareness that sexual assault is a major issue on campus and that action must be taken against it.

“…[McKeldin Mall] is right in the heart of campus where everyone’s passing through and I think a lot of people are able to engage when they otherwise might not even think about sexual assault,” said Sophie Darwin, a junior biology and art sociology major on the executive board of PSA.

Many of those in attendance were members of Greek life whose sororities and fraternities required them to be present Darwin, a member of the Alpha Phi sorority, said she felt it was true that the issue of sexual assault is sometimes swept under the rug when it comes to Greek life.

“I think it’s a systemic problem in the United States and Greek Life in general… one of the big goals of our organization is to try and get Greek life involved [in ending sexual assault],” Darwin said.

Will Lobo, an undeclared freshman in the Sigma Nu fraternity, said the event is a good way to change perspectives.

“I feel like some people don’t know a lot about the topic, They just repeat information they get at events, they don’t actually talk about it, they don’t know people that were affected by this and when you know someone affected by it, it completely changes your perspective,” Lobo said.

One of the topics brought up at the event was male survivors of sexual assault. Speaker Jeremy Hardy, a member of the organization Men Can Stop Rape, said that men are often afraid of speaking about their own rapes due to fear of being perceived as unmasculine.

Hardy brought up how oftentimes male rape is treated as something comical, with common phrases about men in jail needing to be careful not to “drop the soap.”

Kerrigan Stern, a senior broadcast journalism major that serves on the executive board of PSA and is one of their vice presidents of recruitment, encouraged men in the crowd to speak about their own experiences regarding sexual assault. Stern herself is a survivor.

“I think that men don’t want to feel emasculated… when some men are sexually assaulted they feel that telling other guys and even girls makes them emasculated,” Kerrigan said. “They think, ‘Oh, you didn’t like it when she did that?” you weren’t strong enough to push her off?’”

Greek life members weren’t the only ones who felt it was important to attend. Ellis McKennie, senior public policy major and offensive lineman for the football team, said he attended the event due to the role that sexual assault can play in sports.

“I play on the football team and sexual assault is something that plagues a lot of athletes that unfortunately commit [these acts]. It’s something we talk a lot about on the football team and it’s something I feel is really important, especially how they talk about how rape can happen to men,” McKennie said.