Fresno State will join the “It’s On Us” national campaign launched by the White House in September 2014 aimed at ending sexual assault on college campuses.
“One in four women, statistically, are sexually assaulted on a college campus by the time they graduate, so it’s really important that everyone is aware of what constitutes sexual assault,” said Jessica Adams, coordinator for the Women’s Resource Center. “We want all our students to be safe.”
“It’s On Us,” a major branding and marketing effort, enlists celebrities, college athletic programs and major programming networks to help change public perception about sexual assault. Student leaders from more than 200 college campuses across the country have already signed up to participate in the campaign. Some of the prominent campaign partners include cable networks Spike, BET and VH1, as well as Viacom and Microsoft.
“It’s a national campaign geared specifically for this population to begin with,” said Arthur Montejano, leadership programs adviser for Student Involvement. “It was something that was readily available for us to use, that had a model that would be fairly easy to implement, and that several other colleges have already taken on.”
Fresno State is the sixth campus in the California State University system to join the campaign and will debut a two-minute video later in the semester. Interest sessions and casting calls are currently taking place.
“We’ve been very intentional about making sure students are involved throughout the process to make sure the video is representative of the diversity of the student body here at Fresno State,” Montejano said.
The campaign promotes four responsibilities:
— Recognizing that non-consensual sex is sexual assault.
— Identifying situations in which sexual assault may occur.
— Intervening in situations where consent has not or cannot be given.
— Creating an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.
As part of a mandatory Haven Understanding Sexual Assault training module introduced by the CSU system, students must now complete a one-hour online course. Designed to teach students about sexual violence on campus, the program must be completed by March 20 for students to be able to register for classes in the fall.
In collaboration with the Haven Program, Montejano said the interactive campaign aims to remind students of the importance of creating a safe environment on campus. Taking part in the national campaign will help improve Haven course completions, he added.
“We wanted to do something that worked in conjunction with the Haven Training, that would create awareness not only for the campaign, but also foster students to facilitate their completion in that,” Montejano said. “We wanted something that was easily recognizable that we could be a part of something larger.”
Students interested in participating in the promotional video are asked to attend an interest session Wednesday in University Student Union Room 312 at 11 a.m.