OUR VIEW: The sexual assault awareness speaker event was mandatory for athletes, but it should be mandatory for all organizations.

Last Tuesday, April 11, the counseling center directors hosted a speaker event with Suzette Walden Cole about sexual assault awareness. This was part of Mustangs Matter, the counseling center’s two-day series for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The room was almost full — a bit of a shock for the Tuesday before Easter break — but it was a majority of athletes. It was mandatory for athletes to attend this event; Head Football Coach Bill Maskill even sat in the back of the room with an attendance sheet.

While we applaud the athletic department for requiring its athletes to attend, we believe that more organizations should have made this event mandatory.

There are dozens of university leaders on this campus across all walks of life — Greek life, University Programming Board, Baptist Student Ministry, Residence Hall Association, Resident Assistants, etc. There should be no reason that other organizations can’t make its members, or even just its leaders, attend an event as important as sexual assault awareness.

If it’s really on us to stop sexual assault and violence, it needs to be on ALL of us, not just the athletes.