President Bill Perry along with a division of Student Affairs are sponsoring Shattering the Silence of Sexual Violence at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Grand Ballroom.

Jacquelyn Hines, the associate director of sexual assault prevention, said sexual violence is an important topic to discuss yearly and not only during its awareness month in April.

Angela Rose will be educating and informing students on her years of experience with the topic as well as her personal experience with sexual assault.

Rose has worked on sexual violence for over a decade. Her work has been featured on CNN, The Today Show, TIME Magazine and many others.

At 17, Rose was abducted at knifepoint outside of a suburban Chicago mall and assaulted by a repeat sex offender. When she finally reached authorities, Rose was scrutinized and blamed instead of being helped.

Hines said since then, Rose worked with her attacker’s previous victims and other community members to help start the Illinois Sexual Dangerous Persons Commitment Act of 1998. Rose also founded PAVE, Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment in order to create education and action surrounding issues of sexual violence.

Perry said sexual assault is an important topic, especially on campus because it is a global and national issue.

“Sponsoring events such as these increases awareness among our campus community and encourages dialogue,” Perry said.

Hines said sexual violence is a community problem; though women are more likely to be victims of sexual assaults, it does happen to men, and it’s an issue that everyone on campus can help prevent.

“By the end of the presentation, hopefully students will come away from it empowered to make a difference and equipped with some concrete strategies on how they can support survivors and help end sexual violence,” Hines said.

Roberto Hodge can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].