Muhlenberg College Students Promote Campaign to End Sexual Assault
Muhlenberg College students are working with Lee Kolbe, Title IX Coordinator, in a campaign to recruit the College community to stand as advocates in eliminating sexual assault.
Tuesday, January 27, 2015 00:28 PM
Information displays accompany posters showing Muhlenberg students holding signs denouncing sexual assault. The images of students and their personal statements are visible throughout Seegers Union’s Light Lounge. The area serves as a hub for campus activity, and students are making the most of the location by providing resources for survivors of assault or those who want to learn how they can help end assault.
Video organized and produced by the Muhlenberg College Students for Reproductive Justice and written and directed by Shira Gorelick '16 and Erin Gistaro '16.
"We hope that this campaign will encourage students to take it upon themselves to intervene in situations where they see and encounter risky behavior," says Hannah Bobker '17. "We want our community to step up, speak out and take action to protect their peers."
Visitors are asked to sign a physical or virtual pledge from ItsOnUs.org, an awareness campaign to help end sexual assault and gender-based violence on college campuses. Statistics from notalone.gov indicate that one in five women and one in sixteen men will experience sexually assault in college. The students leading the campaign believe that having conversations about assault, which admittedly can be difficult, is the first step to ending the violence.
"Sexual assault is an issue that's not often talked about, and this campaign creates conversations that make people face it," says Hannah Busis '17. "Talking about sexual assault makes people feel collectively more responsible, and that may be the best way to end it. Muhlenberg is a caring community, which makes it even more important for us all to take responsibility for each other."
The It’s On Us campaign at Muhlenberg College is an initiative of Lee Kolbe, Title IX Coordinator, and is supported by the division of student affairs, the Feminist Collective, Hillel, PHAM (Peer Health Advocates at Muhlenberg), SASS (Sexual Assault Support Services) and Students for Reproductive Justice.
