Leaders of Penn State's Interfraternity Council (IFC) spoke to several hundred of their members over the past two nights at a program designed to cope with and prevent sexual assault at fraternities.

Part of recent IFC "rape-free zone" legislation requires two-thirds of all fraternity members to attend such programs by January of next year, IFC President Andy Hackett said.

Brian Bertges, the council's executive vice president, started last night's presentation at Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center by informing the mostly greek audience of what steps they should take to protect women from sexual assault.

Bertges said fraternities must have designated areas where women can go if they begin to feel uncomfortable at a party.

"They don't want to talk to another drunk person," he said, stressing the need for sober fraternity members to be in the designated areas. "With a little bit of alcohol, violence can come out."

He said anyone dealing with a woman who has already been sexually assaulted should take her to a place where she will be comfortable and ask her if she wants the police to be called.

"Don't just call the cops right away," Bertges said. "Let them decide."

He also said men should believe what women tell them about sexual assault and to treat the topic seriously.

"Don't downplay it because it torments them for the rest of their lives," he said.

After Bertges finished his presentation, four students from the University Park Ensemble group took the stage to act out a skit about a woman who felt she had been raped by a boyfriend.

Members of the audience were then allowed to ask questions of the four actors. Many questions were about why the woman who had been assaulted did not make clearer signals that she did not want to have sex.

"If she doesn't talk about it, then you have to," said Colleen Mullen (junior-theatre), who played the part of the victim, urging the men in attendance to get consent before having sex.

Representatives from the Center for Women Students were also on hand to answer questions last night.

Peggy Lorah, the center's president, encouraged the audience to think of rape as something that could happen to a friend or family member.

"If your sister came back and told you Kobe Bryant had raped her, would you feel differently?" Lorah asked the audience. She said people often find it hard to believe sexual assault victims if they do not know them.

Joe Mellet (freshman-engineering), a member of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, 508 Locust Lane, said he became much more concerned with sexual assault after two of his friends were raped. He said last night's skit seemed realistic.

"The stories they told were similar to the disturbing images in my own head as I had pictured it," he said.

Hackett said 135 students attended the program on Wednesday, and 175 were there last night. He said most attendees were members of the IFC because this week's programs were advertised mainly to fraternity members. "When we do it in the fall, we'll get a lot more," he said. IFC will hold three more programs in the fall as they try to get more fraternity members to fulfill the requirement.

"We have at least one fraternity that has met the requirement to be considered a rape-free zone," he said.

Mellet said he found some of the statistics presented last night frightening.

"It scares me to know that 90 percent of the girls that are raped don't tell anyone," he said.