On April 17, many students participated in the Take Back the Night rally with the goal of focusing attention on sexual assault. On April 13, only three days earlier, there had been a gang rape in downtown State College. This horrible crime underlines an ugly truth: Sexual assault continues to be a serious problem.

Rallies and marches can help women who have been assaulted feel supported by other caring people, but we need to find a solution that stops assaults from happening.

As female college students, we need to take an active stance against assault. We cannot control how others choose to behave, but we can control our responses to their behavior.

Being attacked is never the victim's fault, but one way to prepare ourselves to resist assailants is to learn to defend ourselves.

There are eight martial arts clubs on campus and a Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) self-defense program through women's studies that can teach the self-defense techniques that help women stay out of potentially dangerous situations and, if they are attacked, equip women with the skills to defend themselves.

Not every assault story ends as tragically as did the one on April 13. On Saturday morning, a woman fought off a man who attacked her as she was walking to her apartment. All of us should follow her example and prepare ourselves for the possibility of attack.

Sign up for RAD or join one of the martial arts clubs on campus and learn how to stop yourself from becoming a victim.