CSU Confessions — the newest social media craze created by Rams, for Rams — has quickly been gaining in popularity. And with posts that are tawdry, raunchy, hilarious and sometimes downright ridiculous, it’s easy to understand the craze.

CSU Confessions has become the soundboard for posts that are too naughty for RamTalk, and students seem to enjoy having the ability to tell of their escapades in vivid detail, while remaining anonymous. And with nearly 8,000 likes on the page, there are a lot of people reading these posts and offering condolences, advice or kudos where appropriate.

Reading this page is incredibly entertaining.I have procrastinated doing homework many times because I hadn’t read all of the confessions, and wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. You can hear tales of awkward sexual encounters, the hangover woes and the occasional warning of speed traps set in Fort Collins. You can read about the regret of students not telling that special someone how beautiful they were, and celebrate when reading about fellow students doing the right thing and helping a Ram out.

While the majority of posts are meant to entertain readers with stories of a scandalous rendezvous, there are a fair number that are haunting and disturbing to read.  When visiting the page, you will see posts made by girls that have been raped or assaulted — the tellings of parties that took it too far.

To be honest, the first time I saw one of these posts, I was surprised. That hadn’t been what I expected CSU Confessions to be about.  But then, the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. With one in four women being a victim of some kind of sexual assault, it had been naïve to think all documented sexual encounters had been consensual.

My heart breaks for these women that feel as if their only sounding board is a social media site where they have to remain anonymous — where their own personal story cannot be connected back to them in any way.

At the same time, to read the comments to the stories of rape and assault, it is amazing to see the rest of the CSU community rallying, offering assistance and encouragement to someone they’d never met. It amazes me how supportive my fellow Rams can be towards people that they’ve never met.

I want to thank the student body here at CSU for being supportive and encouraging, but I also want to call attention to the fact that these “ragers” that are so common on CSU Confessions are also events in which women are constantly found in compromising situations, and all too often it ends up in women being sexually assaulted.

Recently, 20/20 did a special on a small community in Ohio in which a party went too far and a severely inebriated high school girl ended up being raped. What was startling about this case was that there was not one person that attempted to stop it from happening. Instead, there were photos and videos taken and posted online, a monstrosity in and of itself.

Bottom line: it doesn’t matter how drunk a girl is, it doesn’t matter how scantily clad they are, sexual assault is never, ever, a woman’s fault. The very thought of someone taking a video or photo of an obviously impaired woman becoming a victim of rape, instead of doing whatever necessary to stop it from happening, is sickening.

I sincerely hope that my Rams that are telling of these epic nights on CSU Confessions, are not turning a blind eye toward possible instances of sexual assault. I sincerely hope that the partiers that are posting to Confessions are not also posting videos and photos of rape on different social media outlets.

I am thankful for the CSU community rallying around victims and offering support during difficult situations, but I also have to wonder where they were while it was happening.

Ladies, be accountable for yourselves and take every necessary precautions to ensure that you are not made a victim. Men, be on your guard and keep an eye out for situations that do not look consensual. Always intervene if your suspicious are raised. Let’s all do our part to make sure that there are less posts of sexual assault made to CSU Confessions.

 Brittany Jordan is a junior psychology major. He column appears every Thursday in the Collegian. Letters and feedback can be sent to letters@collegian.com.