In efforts to increase sexual assault prevention and education on university campuses across the state, Michigan’s first lady Sue Snyder hosted a conversation Wednesday with Grand Valley State University officials. According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, 25 percent of college women are victims of sexual assault during their time in college, while 90 percent never report it.
“It breaks my heart when I think about how many people have been sexual assaulted yet never tell anyone,” Snyder said. “But why would they? In order to truly change our culture, we must to be better at listening to, and supporting survivors.”
In 2015, Snyder began the statewide "Let's End Campus Sexual Assault" initiative; while Grand Valley State University has received multiple grants from the initiative to bolster campus sexual assault prevention programming and education.
“While we still have made significant progress, I think it’s clear that we still have more work to do," Snyder said.
A number of sexual assaults have been reported either on or near the Allendale campus in the past year, however, according to the university’s Women’s Center, Grand Valley statistically is on par with other campus nationally when it comes to the number of sexual violence reports.
