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The Hunting Ground: Documentary hopefully raising sexual assault awareness on USU campus

The Utah State University Perspectives Club held a showing of The Hunting Ground, a documentary about rape and sexual assault culture on university campuses in the U.S., Thursday night.

The documentary showing was sponsored by the Center for Women and Gender and Perspectives Club, along with the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity and the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information (SAAVI) office and was shown in the Eccles Science Learning Center auditorium on campus.

“We want to get the message out to our peers that we can end rape and sexual assault, and that it’s a problem even in Utah. I know it’s happened to fellow students,” said Lily Palmer, a sophomore at USU and co-president of the Perspectives Club.

The documentary premiered last spring at Sundance Film Festival, and Palmer and others in the club volunteered with the filmmakers at the time.

“Just to have the people in the film there, and to have their stories told, even if you weren’t a survivor, it made you want to consider things, and it made me want to better things for people around me,” Palmer said.

Palmer, and those putting on the event, hope that all people — especially those who may not know much about the issue — will consider that this happens at USU, and what they can do, especially in supporting victims and working to increase validity around the issue, Palmer said.

“We’re really excited for tonight, we showed it last year as well, we were the first school to show it next to Notre Dame, we showed it the same time they did, so it was really a big deal,” Palmer said. “It was a big deal, and there were eight people there. We’re hoping to get 80 this year and make it bigger, to get the word out and help people recognize this issue.”

According to the documentary, multiple studies have found that more than 16 percent of college women are assaulted on a college campus, yet 88 percent of women who are raped on campus do not report the assault.

Nic Siniscalchi, a member of Alpha Sigma Phi who helped to organize the event, believes that awareness through the documentary can help people understand “what it’s like going through this, it’s a very traumatic experience,” he said. “I think with Utah culture it’s easy to judge people and victim blaming is a huge issue, especially here in Utah and that’s something that I kind of want people to recognize more … I have friends who are survivors, so it is a thing.”

Awareness is the main objective of the documentary and discussion of the issue, and they all hope that it sparks conversation among people on campus about what can be done to make changes and help survivors, Siniscalchi said.

A panel that included a student survivor, a social work student, a counselor from USU Counseling and Psychological Services and a member of the Perspectives Club presented about sexual assault on campus and took questions after the showing of the documentary.

Depression and anxiety are two significant mental health outcomes for many — if not most — sexual assault survivors, said Charles Bentley, the licensed psychologist from Counseling and Psychological Services on the panel. Fear and anxiety about being on campus and running into one’s assaulter are part of the massively negative impact on those who have been assaulted, he said.

Members of the panel constantly reiterated that students can choose to stand up and say something when there is ignorance or jest involved in talking about sexual assault, and can also be a support to friends who are survivors.

Questions were asked about culture and how it plays into sexual assault in any area, but being aware it is a problem and knowing it is something that can be addressed and worked on was the take-away from the panelists.

“The statistics are staggering. One in five women in college are sexually assaulted, yet only a fraction of these crimes are reported, and even fewer result in punishment for the perpetrators. The Hunting Ground is a piercing, monumental exposé of rape culture on campuses, poised to light a fire under a national debate,” read the USU event’s description.

“Since the film’s premiere at Sundance, it had been screened at the White House and hundreds of college campuses across the country. The documentary has inspired new laws in New York and California and changes in campus policies,” it read.

For more information about the Perspectives Club at USU, visit: cwg.usu.edu/perspectives-club, or for more about about the documentary, visit: www.thehuntinggroundfilm.com. To know more about the Counseling and Psychological Services at USU, visit: www.usu.edu/counseling.

Those in the panel also encourage students to go to itsonus.org to pledge to do everything they can to fight sexual assault on campus, and to raise awareness.

— mandy.m.morgan@aggiemail.usu.edu

@mandy_morg