(Last December) a woman was (allegedly) raped in our community. To those of you in State College and Centre County who choose to ignore the fact that women are continually and consistently violated at this University and in this community, we would like to inform you otherwise.

Let us remind you: this is only a reported rape and excludes those unreported rapes that occur every weekend. Statistically, for every rape reported, 10 are not; within a group of three women, our friends and yours, one of us will be a survivor of rape.

Why was this community shocked when it learned of the rape (allegedly) occurring on campus last December (The Daily Collegian, Jan. 12)? Until we acknowledge rape occurs in our dorms, our homes and in our fraternities, a woman may not feel confident that the community will support her decision to press charges.

Without the publicity of a formal charge, rapes are often unreported to the public.

As a community we need to be aware of this fact: Rape occurs at Penn State and in Happy Valley. We need to do something about it.