Last week, two UA women were sexually assaulted on campus.

Last year, a string of sexual assaults hit the university area.

I want us to have the safest campus we can have - Saundra Taylor Vice President of Campus Life

Now, a newly created ASUA student safety advisory committee is working to combat the ongoing trend of sexual assaults, and hope to make campus a safer place in general, according to ASUA Senator Travis Pritchett, SAC's founder.

The Associated Students of the University of Arizona approved the committee, the first in UA history, last Wednesday.

The committee will serve as a liaison between UA students and a central administrative group chaired by Vice President of Campus Life Saundra Taylor.

Victoria Ruan, ASUA administrative vice president-elect, will hold two meetings each semester with the university relations director and representatives from 13 campus groups. The meetings will be open to the public.

"We wanted to create a structure where students can formally bring up concerns," Pritchett said. "It's about trying to get together the campus community and bring concerns to the administration."

After hearing the students' safety concerns, the university relations director will relate them to Taylor, Pritchett said.

While many committees on campus already address safety issues, Taylor said, the goal of the SAC is to coordinate and organize the effort to keep students across the entire campus safe.

"We're not trying to duplicate what other groups do on campus," she said. "We're trying to get a group who is plugged into all the ways we're handling safety and to make sure there are no gaps," Pritchett said.

The SAC will hopefully fill the gaps about how to more immediately address these concerns, Taylor said.

Pritchett hopes to include representatives from groups such as the Student Health Advisory Council, SafeRide, Pride Alliance, Women's Resource Center, Residence Hall Association, Inter-Fraternity Council, Panhellenic, Risk Management, CARE and Associated Students with Disabilities.

Jonna Lopez, Pride Alliance director, said she definitely plans to be part of SAC.

"I think that any steps that are taken to unify groups on campus and get us talking to each other are important," she said.

The formation of SAC is particularly important now, at a time when safety groups tend to focus more on issues such as bio-terrorism and war, Taylor said. She added that it's always important to remember other safety issues, as well.

"We've become so decentralized on how we manage this campus that a lot of times we lose sight on some very specific issues," Taylor said.

"I want us to have the safest campus we can have," Taylor said. "This effort is about trying to organize all efforts of campus safety so we know we have the safety we need."

Pritchett first proposed the idea for the SAC to the campus advisory council in December.

Previously, Pritchett spent much of his time as an ASUA senator working to improve the lighting on campus.