Sexual harassment is a crime and is being taken lightly. Some people may think that hollering cat calls, whistles or suggestive comments are a compliment, but this is just not true.

Sexual harassment is unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature that makes someone feel uncomfortable or unwelcome by focusing attention on his or her gender.

Sexual harassment, in law, consists of unwelcome sexual advances, unwanted requests for sexual favors, and certain other offensive conduct of a sexual nature. A comment like, “Yeah, baby, you know you want me,” while spoken in tones of flirtation and fun, may be construed as a request for a sexual favor, or an offer of one.

This happens to a majority of women on a regular basis, yet victims aren’t reporting incidents to the proper authorities. Students should take charge and report any form of sexual harassment as soon as it happens, especially if it is in a place of residence.

Recent numbers do not match up with cases experienced on a daily basis. An unofficial poll of a group of 100 randomly chosen Sacramento State Students revealed that 67 percent of the students polled have experienced sexual harassment on campus. This poll included males and females, although 80 percent of the females alone claimed to have experienced harassment.

Janie Heaton, housing and residential life manager, said “Sexual harassment reports are extremely rare and almost unheard of.”

Heaton said that if there were any reports, the situation was handled through counseling methods.

Kelly, who declined to provide her last name, is a manager at the popular student residence Fairlake Apartments in Sacramento and said, “Sexual harassment records are not available because there are no records. When cases are reported they are dealt with and are not recorded.”

The Human Resources Department, located in room 259 of Sacramento Hall, handles claims of sexual harassment on campus. Peter Lau, a representative with the department, has been working with sexual harassment cases on campus for seven years.

“There are only between one and three formal investigations reported per year,” Lau said. “There are 10 to 15 informal reports per year.”

Unreported cases of sexual harassment are due, not only to the mindset of harassers, but also those of the victims. Cat calls and sexual comments are so common, especially towards young people, that the incidents are looked at as “normal.” The problem with letting smaller sexual harassment cases go unreported is that the harassment may escalate. Violence and rape can be the result of neglected harassment cases.

A female Sac State student who chose to remain anonymous shared her sexual harassment story that almost ended in rape.

“I was being harassed by this guy almost every time I had class with him. One night we ended up at the same party where he continued to make sexual advances at me. To make a long story short, he caught me alone in the bathroom and tried to rape me. Luckily others heard my screams and scared him off. The next day I realized that if I would have reported this guy earlier, maybe that incident could’ve been avoided. If those people wouldn’t have helped me, I would’ve gotten raped.”

If students want to report sexual harassment or need to talk to about it, they can contact one of the campus resources set up for that purpose. Students can contact Peter Lau with the Human Resource Department at 278-6907, the Women’s Resource Center at 278-7388 or the Housing and Residential Life Department at 278-6655.