Berry’s It’s on Us committee, which seeks to raise awareness about sexual assault, will be publicly launching next week.

 

The It’s on Us campaign is a nationwide movement started by the Obama administration in September 2014.

The initiative focuses on addressing sexual violence on college campuses. Students can sign a pledge promising to “intervene in situations where consent has not or cannot be given” and “identify situations in which sexual assault may occur.” 

 

The committee will be in Krannert lobby every day next week asking students to sign the pledge and providing information about sexual assault.

 

Logo from itsonus.org

Trish Wiggins, an area coordinator for Residence Life, is the staff supervisor for the student committee at Berry. She said she hopes the committee is successful in getting students to protect each other in potentially dangerous situations.

 

“Often it’s easy to pretend that you don’t see something or think ‘It’s none of my business, so I don’t want to be rude or insult someone,’” Wiggins said. “It’s better to insult someone than to not do something.”

 

Sophomore Reed Pagett, a peer educator, is on the committee. He said the peer educators will be distributing information about how to define consent and assault. Sexual assault, he said, has become a national issue as well as a local one.

 

“I think sexual assault is very prevalent on Berry’s campus, although a lot of people don’t really know that,” he said. “We have a lot more cases than are really reported. Nationally, the It’s on Us campaign has grown very fast, and I think Berry just wants to join in on that solidarity against sexual assault.”

 

Senior Sydney Ray, the president of Empower and a committee member, said she likes how the campaign focuses on social responsibility. 

 

“We’re trying to shift the conversation about sexual assault away from the victim and more towards responsibility and prevention on the part of everyone else. To move away from victim blaming–I think that’s a really positive step,” Ray said.

She said that everyone, regardless of their role on campus, can make a positive impact towards ending assault.

“This is something that can be prevented and something that everybody can take responsibility for, not just the administration or the person it happened to or the people who were present,” Ray said.

Ray said the committee plans to make a promotional video. There will also be T-shirt giveaways at the table in Krannert lobby next week.

Wiggins said the committee will likely hold a larger event in the fall to make freshmen more aware about the campaign.