The Collegian's Friday article "Group confronts sexual assault issues" about the WMNST 003 class performance neglected a crucial question about our struggle to protect the rights of women.

It is commonly assumed that all we need to do to reduce sexual assault is to simply "raise awareness" of the problem.

If everyone is "aware" of the heartbreaking statistics, somehow automatically these crimes will decrease, it is claimed.

The obvious missing piece is the "ought" - the morality question.

We must raise awareness not only of the sad statistics about sexual assault, but also of the fact that sexual assault is absolutely wrong. We often try to avoid public morality debates, hoping that such issues can be relegated to "common sense."

But in today's pluralistic world, we can no longer assume a shared societal morality. Who's to say that our morals are better than those of rapists?

How can this be justified? Awareness of crime statistics without awareness of absolute morality is worthless.