Campus News: Top Featured

Diane Grimes sits cross-legged on a magenta Zafu meditation cushion in the front of the classroom as 21 students shuffle into her Tuesday afternoon CRS 347: Mindful Communication Skills class at Syracuse University. Fifteen women and six men deftly strip off thick parkas, down jackets, and heavy-duty snow boots; and place them in four large mahogany closets that line the sides of the room. Leaving behind everything but a folder and pen, the students assume a cross-legged position on their assigned Zafu cushions.

Students and representatives from various student advocacy groups came together in the Schine Student Center on Monday to celebrate the launch of the #NotAskingForIt video, which highlights the issue of sexual assault victim blaming and promotes awareness about the reality of sexual assault. The video is part of the Office of Health Promotion's campaign, "Got Consent? Be S.U.R.E."

It was just another night at college; at least that is what Jackie Reilly thought. A couple of girls and guys hanging out upstairs in a fraternity house together on the first night back sophomore year after a long summer apart. Jackie arrived back early to Syracuse University’s campus because she was a peer advisor participating in freshmen orientation. That night, she accepted a drink that she did not see poured. The bottom of a white Styrofoam cup and the contour of her rapist’s body in the background was her last memory.

Women make up more than 50 percent of the U.S. population, But they represent only 20 percent of congressional positions.

“It’s not that women are less capable than men,” said Eileen Hartmann, director of the New York sector of American Association of University Women, about the discrepancy. “It’s that they are sometimes less confident.”