By the time they have graduated from college, 1 in 6 women and 1 in 12 men will have been sexually assaulted, said Virginia Solan, Women’s Center administrative assistant.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut Somayeh Passebani, graduate student in material science, reads the Sexual Assault Awareness Month display in the Teaching and Learning Center. Drop boxes are located around campus inviting people to drop note cards expressing how they feel about sexual assault as part of the month-long series of events sponsored by the Women's Center.
In conjunction with Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the University of Idaho Women’s Center in collaboration with a dedicated service learning project group, will be hosting multiple events this week to bring awareness about sexual assault during April. Solan said the events aim to teach people who witness sexual assaults that they can do something.
“Giving people ways to make change on the rape culture on campus — what that looks like is saying to the 99.9 percent of guys out there who are not committing sexual assault, ‘Here are some tools, some strategies to hold people accountable if you see that they are behaving in a predatory way,'” Solan said.
This week, that message will be sent through events thanks in part to a service learning project conducted by students who Solan said went far beyond their 30-hour responsibility. Solan said UI seniors Danielle Mierz, Erin Simmons and Sariah Vieira worked with the Women’s Center to coordinate this week’s activities.
Students may have seen boxes on campus during April that ask participants to write their thoughts on sexual assaults. Those are now on display on the first floor of the Commons.
Mierz said when they came together to work on the project they concluded that they didn’t want to send the same message as previous years.
“We decided that our theme would be bystander awareness and showing people that even if they are not the person being assaulted, they can do something about it — whether it’s taking someone out of a situation where they might be assaulted or making the choice to not be OK with sexual assault,” Mierz said.
Wednesday’s event includes the movie “Accused” starring Jodie Foster, which illustrates the first time bystanders were prosecuted for enciting a felony. The showing will begin at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Agricultural Science Building.
After the movie there will be a panel discussion on sexual assault. Panelists include Brian Hopper, Sharon Fritz, Professor Erin Chapman, Tiffney Compton, Lt. Dave Lehmitz of the Moscow Police Department and a student speaker.
Thursday there will be a Green Dot presentation, which promotes making the right decisions after witnessing a possible sexual assault, from 4 to 5 p.m. Thursday in the Idaho Commons food court. There will also be food and a chance to receive a gift card at the event.
Simmons said both events spread knowledge of sexual assaults and if one person is changed during this week — it was all worth it.
“I feel as somebody who has sisters and nieces and a lot of women in my life who I really, really care about — I felt like it was kind of my duty to do what I can to help,” Simmons said.
Mierz said when the group first went looking for a project they weren’t aware that it was Sexual Assault Awareness Month. She said through this process they have learned a lot and hope people will take the opportunity to come to the events this week to learn as well.
“We as a group want to make it clear to our fellow students that we can make a change, whether it’s a small change or a large change, just by making a decision and that’s one of the things we are trying to show people — that you don’t have to make a catastrophic change, you don’t have to protest, you don’t have to do anything incredibly radical — you just have to make the choice,” Mierz said.
Jacob Dyer can be reached at [email protected]