During a UF police manhunt Sunday, UF campus was illuminated not in orange and blue, but red and blue.
More than 60 UF and Gainesville police officers patrolled campus trying to find the battery suspect, but after setting up a security perimeter that surrounded campus, they were unable to locate the man, according to UPD Chief of Police Linda Stump in a press conference Monday afternoon.
As tensions run high on campus, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Friday showed about 19.3 percent of women in America — or 1 in 5 — have been raped. The survey was conducted in 2011.
About 79 percent of rapes were committed before the victim was 25 years old.
GatorWell, an organization on campus, aims to prevent sexual violence by offering resources and risk reduction techniques to students, said Rita Lawrence, an interpersonal violence prevention coordinator with the organization.
Women who take these measures can still become victims, Lawrence said.
“In 80 to 90 percent of rapes, the attacker is known by the victim,” she said. “That makes this perpetrator unusual.”
She said GatorWell is focusing on bystander intervention and training individuals to recognize what could become a dangerous situation.
The Sexual Trauma/Interpersonal Violence Education (STRIVE) program on campus is a resource the Counseling and Wellness Center is promoting to educate students on sexual violence.
“We have to change the culture from one where people unthinkingly accept inequality and hurtful behaviors directed towards people seen as less powerful to one where more people value respect, equality and power-sharing,” Lawrence wrote in an email.
The CWC offers walk-in consultations and after-hours phone counseling, said Jennifer Stuart, a UF psychologist. Support groups are available Thursday afternoons.
Steven Huston, an accounting senior, said he is concerned for his female friends on campus at night. The 21-year-old plans to walk his friends anywhere they need to go.
“I’m not going to let them go alone,” he said.
