Kansas University student Angela Murphy on Monday said she doesn’t feel safe walking home alone in the evening.

Murphy and other KU students and school administrators shared their concerns with U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Topeka, who was gathering information to take back to Washington, D.C., where legislators are working on measures aimed at reducing sexual assaults on college campuses.

Margie Wakefield

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins

“We want to ensure that universities can provide the safety for these young people while educating them,” said Jenkins, a co-sponsor of bipartisan legislation on campus safety in the U.S. House.

Democrat Margie Wakefield, who is challenging Jenkins in the November election, said she supported the legislation, too.

But Wakefield said Congress also needed to do more for women on the economic front. “Two thirds of those making minimum wage in this country are women, many of them single parents. We need to take serious action in Congress to help change these startling statistics,” she said.

The high incidence of sexual assaults at colleges and universities has gained national attention as federal reports and advocacy groups report that nearly one in five undergraduate women have been the victims of sexual violence.

Seventy-six colleges and universities, including KU, Kansas State and Washburn, are under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights for their handling of investigations into sexual assaults.

Murphy, who is working on her doctorate degree, said that in the evening, the campus is well lighted, but when she crosses Iowa Street there aren’t many streetlights.

“I don’t feel safe walking by myself late at night,” she said.

She and Emma Halling, acting student body president, said a committee at KU is looking at ways to improve the situation, including having nurses who are more familiar with sexual assault to be readily available on campus, and training students with intervention strategies.

“The initial instinct of a survivor is often to shut down and say this is my problem,” said Halling.

“For her to be able to look to the nation and say, `No this is not just my problem, this is a campus problem, this is a national problem, and there should be people intervening on my behalf,’ is very empowering for those victims,” she said.