Assistant Professor of History Yaron Ayalon ends the week's class by telling his students to better themselves. Ayalon gave the speech last year, and will give the speech again on Feb. 26 in Teachers College Room 121. PHOTO COURTESY OF FACEBOOK

Yaron Ayalon | History

At the end of his History 150 class each week, Yaron Ayalon stops lecturing to give 5-10 minute talks on various social issues and how students can improve themselves.

A topic the history professor spoke about last semester, and one he is repeating Feb 26., is rape culture and sexual assault. The lecture is open to all students.

Last semester when Ayalon spoke about sexual assault, he showed photos students had sent into an anonymous Twitter page, @BsuFessions.

But when students saw some of the nude, or almost nude photos posted on the page, they sent Snapchats of the page, saying how they “learn about noodz in class.”

“This is a page that promotes rape cultures,” he said. “You just need to read the tweets. How women are objectified on this page, how men talk about women, what they say about different body parts of women and men and what they would like to do with them.”

Ayalon said he is planning on showing those photos again, but this time he wants to talk about his students' reactions to them.

As a self-proclaimed feminist, Ayalon said he thinks sexual assault is a major issue on college campuses.

Yaron Ayalon's talk on sexual assault When: 10:30 a.m. Thursday Where: Teachers College 121

“Women on this campus are getting raped every year,” he said. “This is my second year at Ball State, and I already know 12 women who have been assaulted. If this is not a serious problem we all have to be talking about, I don’t know what is.”

One in five undergraduate women reported experiencing attempted or completed sexual assault since entering college, according to a study done by the Center for Disease Control.

While most of Ayalon’s talks are about setting career goals, the one on sexual assault is the only one that doesn’t relate back to their career.

"I do [these talks] because I feel like a lot of students come to college and they need a lot of extra guidance beyond what they're getting from advisors or the Ball State website," Ayalon said.