Monthly Archives: April 2014

10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!: #10 Emma Halling, Kansas University

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Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

 #10 Emma Halling, Kansas University
As a response to an Al Jazeera video of Kansas University students discussing their drunken sexual encounters, student Emma Halling, Vice President of the KU Student Body and committee member with KU’s Institutional Opportunity and Access office, worked with administrators to put together a training on consent and sexual violence that emphasizes peer accountability and bystander intervention. The training will ultimately consist of a series of 30 second videos on sexual violence and consent made with the help of the university’s Interactive Theatre Troupe, a group of actors, writers and directors who use improvisation and other techniques to tackle difficult issues.
SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!: #9 DePaul Exposed, DePaul University

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Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

 #9 DePaul Exposed, DePaul University
Last week, student activist group “DePaul Exposed” at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, accused officials at the nation’s largest Catholic University of covering up campus sexual assaults and has ”demonstrated a level of selectivity when it comes to alerting students on these [sexual assault] incidents.” The students of DePaul Exposed are calling for the administration to begin taking allegations of sexual assault and to “stop enabling rape culture.” The students have also taken responsibility for two banners that were hung in the school’s Arts and Letters building, one of which targeted the university’s athletic department The banners specifically targeted the school’s athletics department, reading “DPU Athletics We Know What You Did #RapeCulture #YouCan’tHide!” It is unclear if a specific incident related to DePaul athletics has triggered the backlash.
SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!: #8 Students and Faculty at Butler University, Indiana

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Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

#8 Students and Faculty at Butler University, Indiana

On April 17, 2014, 100 students and faculty at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana gathered to protest the institution’s sexual assault policies and slow, opaque disciplinary process and call for reform. The rally occurred four months after a Butler student, who goes by the pseudonym “Eliza Quincey”, was raped at an off-campus party. The investigation, disciplinary action and ultimate expulsion of Eliza’s assailant took four-months and was cloaked in secrecy, which raised doubts amongst students and staff if the administration actually takes allegations of sexual violence seriously. At the rally, students and faculty held signs that read, “I stand with Eliza” and chanted “I am Eliza!”

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!: #7 Nowmee Shehab, Emory University

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Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

#7 Nowmee Shehab, Emory University

Since arriving at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, as a transfer student from Smith College, undergraduate student Nowmee Shehab has led efforts to raise awareness about and curb campus sexual violence on her campus. Nowmee works in Emory’s Center for Women and is a Co-Coordinator for the Respect Program in the Office of Health Promotion, which engages the Emory campus community in preventing and responding to sexual assault and relationship violence. In March 2014, Nowmee won the Unsung Heroine Award from the Center for Women at Emory for her work to combat campus sexual violence.

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!: #6 Lena Sclove, Brown University

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10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!

Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

#6 Lena Sclove, Brown University

In November 2013, Lena Sclove, an undergraduate student at Brown University, received word that her assailant, who had been found guilty of multiple counts of sexual assault against Sclove by the university’s Student Conduct Board, would not face expulsion, but rather be suspended for only one year (despite the Board’s recommendation that the assailant receive at minimum a two-year suspension). Sclove attempted to appeal the decision, but her appeal request was rejected. On April 22, Sclove, along with over 80 students and faculty members, gathered to protest the the University’s decision to permit her assailant to return to campus in the Fall of 2014. Sclove will continue to fight the University’s decision and needs our continued support in doing so.

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

 

10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!: #5 Founders of Silence is Violence, Wesleyan University

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10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!

Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

From the Silence is Violence Website

Founders of Silence is Violence, Wesleyan University

Four undergraduate students, Mari Jarris ’14, Chloe Murtagh ’15, John Nelson ’16, and Lynn Ma ’16, at Wesleyan University, Connecticut, launched the website Silence is Violence to feature testimonials of survivors of sexual assault and student-submitted quotes of overheard conversations on campus that they found triggering or offensive. While the quotes are definitely triggering, they highlight the insensitivity often shown towards sexual assault survivors and the aggressive language by assailants.

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!: #4 Members of “No Red Tape”, Columbia University

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10 Student Sexual Assault Prevention Activists to Know!

Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

#4: Members of “No Red Tape“, Columbia University

SAFER was founded in New York City at Columbia University in 2000 and, despite a legacy of student sexual assault prevention activism, the institution is again facing allegations that administrators have mistreated survivors, failed to adequately record the allegations of survivors, and protected known repeat-rapists. On admitted students day in April 2014, members of No Red Tape handed out copies of a letter to prospective freshman on the epidemic of college sexual assault and the need for reform at Columbia. The students were quickly removed from the admitted students event and not permitted to return.

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Activists to Know!: #3: Kate Sim, Harvard University

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10 Student Sexual Assault Activists to Know!

Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

# 3 Kate Sim, Harvard University

Left: Kate Sim ’14

Kate Sim is a student at Harvard University and founder of Our Harvard Can Do Better, which is a student activist organization working on the college, university and national level to advocate for survivor-centric, intersectionally inclusive reform of sexual violence policies. Sim, along with her fellow Harvard Activists, filed a Title IX complaint against Harvard after members of the faculty mistreated survivors and after activists discovered that the University’s current sexual assault policy is over twenty years old. In addition to her work with Our Harvard, Sims is active with Know Your IX.

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Activists to Know!: #2 Members of Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence, Brandeis University

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10 Student Sexual Assault Activists to Know!

Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

#2. Members of Brandeis Students Against Sexual Violence, Brandeis University

Students at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, published a Change.org petition calling on their administrators to create a stronger, survivor-oriented sexual assault policy after a Tumblr entitled “SpeakOut! Brandeis” was published with the goal of promoting awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment on campus, and allow those affected by it to anonymously share their stories.

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.

10 Student Sexual Assault Activists to Know!: #1 John Kelly, Tufts University

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Throughout the course of the last year, we at SAFER have proudly watched numerous student sexual assault prevention activists speak out against the prevalence of sexual assault on their campuses and call for changes to college and universities policies regarding sexual violence.

In honor of Sexual Assault ACTIVISM Month, SAFER will highlight 10 student sexual assault prevention activists around the nation who are creating change on their campus!

#1 John Kelly, Tufts University

John Kelly, SA Prevention Activist, on the right at an ED ACT NOW Protest. 

John Kelly is junior at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, who, after experiencing first-hand the inadequacies of his institution’s sexual assault policy and disciplinary process became an activist with ED ACT NOW and Know Your IX and has advocated for Tufts to change their sexual assault policies and disciplinary procedures. As a male, queer survivor of sexual assault, John has worked to ensure sexual violence against men and members of the LGBTQ community are included in conversations and activism around campus sexual assault.

 

SAFER provides student activists with a variety of resources, including the Activist Resource Center, which is our online library of sexual assault-related information and resources; on-campus Teach-Ins for student activists, which are led by skilled facilitators and equip students with the skills and information needed to bring about policy reforms and change; and, our Activist Mentoring Program (AMP!), which is our free mentoring service that provides students with continued support after they have completed an on-campus Teach-In.