During my final semester as a senior in high school, I wrote a persuasive speech for my microeconomics class, and looking back, I felt like this was an important essay that is still relevant as I go into my last quarter as a freshman in college.

Here is a message to college administrators and faculty that addresses a serious, but deliberately hidden issue on college campuses. I hope to stimulate a sort of understanding that would allow others to see the significance of sexual assault on victims’ lives and attempt to destigmatize sexual assault victims.

"Hello, college administrators and faculty. My name is Lauren Yu, and I am currently a senior at a high school in the San Fernando Valley. I am here today to talk about a prominent issue among college campuses that is not to be taken lightly. In a few months, I’m going to leave the safety of my high school and parents to attend college. Despite the exhilaration that comes with experiencing something new, I am afraid that the expense I will have to pay is my own mental health.

'The impressive application has inspired the facility of XX [University] to offer you a place in our class of 2016. Your year should be filled with exciting new experiences, which include losing your virginity to a rapist who won’t be a stranger.' A YouTube channel named, 'The Unacceptable Acceptance Letters,' shows college-bound seniors, like myself, checking to see their admissions results. However, it ironically shows how colleges turn a blind eye to the sexual assaults that take place on their campuses. Because your school is afraid to taint its name, you steer away from the slightest possibility that your student could do such a horrendous thing on your campus.

When Title IX was enforced by the Obama administration, the U.S. Department of Education was placed into 246 ongoing investigations to see how colleges and universities, most likely yours included, handled sexual assault. It was intended to allow students to come forward with their statements to take actions against their assailants. But, with the myriad of cases, it was said to take four years to investigate allegations of colleges mishandling sexual assault cases.

Even if a student was expelled or suspended, most universities left no record of such punishment on the student’s transcript. For example, a student from Yale University filed a sexual assault report in 2012, and when Yale investigated it, the perpetrator was to be suspended for a semester after finding evidence that showed he was guilty. However, since the punishment was given during the last week of classes before finals, it was altered to become a one-day suspension. Just because it is held at a 'crucial' time during school does not excuse the crime that the student committed.

At the University of Southern California, a case in 2014 showed how absurd the reasons for failing to protect the victims were. When a girl went to file a report, the campus police said, 'Because he stopped, it was not rape. Even though his penis penetrated your vagina, because he stopped, it was not a crime.' According to the campus police, no rape had occurred because the assailant did not orgasm. That girl had something forced inside of her body without her consent, but that’s not rape?

In another case at USC, a woman tried to report a sexual assault, but she was told that since it occurred at a fraternity event, that 'women should not go out, get drunk, and expect not to get raped.' Can you look me in the eye and tell me that I deserved to get raped because I went out and drank? Or, if your daughter, sister, or mother were to get raped, can you tell them that they were asking to get raped because they drank? That’s exactly what you’re saying to sexual assault victims. You victimize the perpetrator and question the victim.

A month into her first quarter at Northwestern University, Krystel Beltran was sexually assaulted by a friend. When she mustered up enough courage to talk to the investigators, they claimed that she gave consent and talked about the perpetrator’s character and his 'former philanthropic employment,' as if it made her claims implausible.

'I left because forcing yourself to stay in the kind of environment that blames you for being raped kills you. I left because administration failed me so bad I realized that I rather drop out of school than stay one more second in a place that excuses the actions of rapists. I left because after months of trying to further that college dream we first-generation students have, I realized that when I accepted my admission to my university, I had not accepted to be raped and humiliated.'

How many other cases and universities must be named for sexual assault to be taken more seriously? I encourage your campus to protect your students, especially those who suffer from sexual assault. Teach people how to intervene and stop assaults from occurring by implementing bystander intervention programs and conducting campus climate surveys. Although this isn’t a complete solution, it’s a start. Change how you implement your policies before I myself become a victim."

Without a doubt, we must recognize that the stigma against sexual assault victims is socially constructed, and therefore, fluid. In order to bring about some sort of change to ameliorate the victims’ suffering, we must first be aware of where this suffering comes from and the hierarchies that influence such social constructions.