The Safe Sisters at Indiana University have been successful in their goal of giving sorority women people to go to if they need support, whether it’s after experiencing sexual assault or something else they just need to talk to someone about.

Their presence is invaluable to their chapters, but there’s still more they can, and are, doing for their chapters and the rest of the Greek community.

This year, Safe Sisters added a discussion portion of their trips to educate fraternities in an effort to truly help them understand and process the presentations. Within those discussion groups, the fraternity men have the chance to ask questions and speak freely without fear of judgement.

Sometimes, the men even realize that they’ve experienced things that were somewhere on the scale of harassment or assault, but they didn’t know because they hadn’t had the education to realize it.

“I’ve had (fraternity men), during discussions, realize that ‘Oh, that wasn’t just like an uncomfortable situation, that was wrong,’” Emma Knox, a Safe Sister, said. 

The Interfraternity Council also created a “brother” group to Safe Sisters called Brothers Against Sexual Assault and Exploitation (BASE) this year, but it’s still in its early stage and can’t provide as many resources as the Safe Sisters do.

But the truth behind it all is that, while more students are open to discussing the topic, everything is still reactive instead of proactive. These presentations and discussions grew out of the rising concern around rising sexual assaults. Everything the Safe Sisters do is still largely focused on being present after someone experiences assault, rather than preventative work.

There is also a difference between being open to discussing how to prevent sexual assault and stand up for oneself and actually doing it.

Last year, IU enacted a ban on social events in Greek life due to the increased amount of reported sexual assaults at Greek life events. While the ban was lifted last spring, lingering effects are making it difficult to gauge whether or not the ban did anything, and in turn, whether or not the presentations and efforts from the Safe Sisters are wholly effective.

“As far as the ban goes, (we) don’t think that it’s helped at all with the actual amount of assaults or harassments happening,” Knox said. “It’s just changed the amount of reporting. It’s scared people out of reporting, because they feel like it’s their fault, if they say something, that there’s going to be another ban.”

A stigma still remains around sexual assault, and survivors can still be hesitant to speak out despite the increasingly available resources and support. Some fear they will be blamed. Some don’t want to cause problems, and others may simply not want to relive the event.

A fear of reporting is understandable. However, this, in turn, leads to statistics that are not completely accurate. A perceived drop in sexual assault could just be a drop in reports. Skewed statistics can also skew opinions, and possibly even mean advocates and awareness groups taking a step back if they feel they are succeeding in their work.

But the truth is, they probably aren’t succeeding. 

That’s why Safe Sisters and BASE alike are working on preventing sexual assault from occurring in the first place. Some students are still not convinced the presentations and discussions that are being facilitated are reaching everyone — especially the people that need it the most.

“These people are always going to try to find ways however many safety recommendations we can give these executive councils,” Knox said. “

The Safe Sisters are trying to take a two-pronged approach; help survivors feel comfortable enough to talk about their experiences and possibly report them while also trying to prevent any assaults from happening. 

Shifting reactions from proactive to reactive is no easy feat, and it will likely take years before a true, tangible change can occur. But the Safe Sisters don’t intend to slow down until it does.