On Tuesday, April 18, the Tribune reported that the fifth sexual assault of 2006 on Marquette's campus was reported to the Department of Public Safety.

To explain the efforts made by our public safety on campus to protect our women, DPS Lt. Paul Mascari said, "There's not a lot DPS can do as a department to prevent sexual assaults from occurring."

It was indicated that students should be policing this action, being careful not to travel alone or take offered drinks. All of this isgood advice, but what about the obvious: preventing sexual assault by permitting open discussion of the issue on campus?

Also as reported by the Tribune on Feb. 23: One reason given by the administration for not allowing "The Vagina Monologues" to be shown on campus was because there are "better ways to address the issues of sexual violence,oppression and injustice."

Is one of those ways to take an opportunity to discuss sexual assault and use it to tell students to watch their drinks?

I will point once more to the Tribune, which published a Viewpoint written by alumna Alysabeth Alexander on March 21. She wrote that she had been sexually assaulted on campus as a freshman at Marquette and was discouraged from reporting the incident.

In counseling, Alexander was told "it was I who needed to create boundaries, protect myself and learn from this situation."

Not her assailant, not the university, but the victim needed to fix the problem. This comes dangerously close to the old rape trial tactic of "blaming the victim."

In my high school health class, we talked about sexual assault. As an exercise, we were given a list of behaviors — "making eye contact," "wearing a short skirt," and "kissing" — and asked which of these meant a woman was "asking" to be raped.

Trick question; no one ever asks to be raped. And yet the responses of Marquette's Counseling Center to Alexander in her time of need, of the DPS as assaults on campus mount and of the university when students try to make these issues heard is to blame the victim, to ignore them, to silence them.

There is no opportunity for growth or solution in this silence. There is only room for more violence and pain.

According to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, someone in America is sexually assaulted every two and a half minutes.

One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape — think about the women you know, and think about what this means.

It means that this is a battle that cannot be pushed away, one we are fighting every single day. Worst of all, according to the Department of Justice, only 39 percent of rapes were reported to law enforcement officials in 2002.

If we cannot talk about this issue, we cannot solve it. I am a cast member of the production of "The Vagina Monologues" that will be performed off-campus this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

We are trying to talk about these issues at a time when our campus desperately needs dialogue. Please help us fight sexual violence by attending. The proceeds from your $10 ticket donation will go to programs that help women and men find ways to fight sexual violence.