By Abigail Kelly, For The Miami Student
Miami students and faculty participated in the national It's On Us campaign during the first week of March, raising awareness about campus sexual assault and interpersonal violence, during the university's first It's On Us week.
With the help of ASG and other student organizations, the Title IX office began planning Miami's It's On Us week last fall in an ongoing effort to organize students against sexual assault on campus.
"What I think the It's On Us Campaign really does is create an ongoing effort," Title IX and Sexual Assault Response Deputy Coordinator Rebecca Getson said. "It gets the message out there fully, so we have one comprehensive message we are sending out."
President Barack Obama launched the It's On Us campaign last September to promote students taking responsibility in preventing sexual assaults on college campuses after universities across the nation were put in the spotlight for inadequate sexual assault policies.
Miami University was criticized for the way it handled the 2012 incident when the flier "10 Ways to Get Away With Rape" was found in a residence hall.
In response to the flier, Miami University created the Task Force on the Prevention of Rape and Sexual Assault. In its January 2013 report, the task force said there are reasons to believe that there are eight to nine sexual assaults per week at Miami.
In addition, Miami's Crime Statistic Report lists that 20 sexual assault cases were reported last year on campus, and in off-campus university establishments. This number does not include the number of sexual assaults reported in off-campus housing.
The first It's On Us week is a start to solving the problems found by Miami's task force.
"It's great to see this unifying factor and see all of campus coming together in solidarity against this issue," F-word's community outreach chair, sophomore Lana Pochiro said.
Last week's events included hockey and basketball games, the signing of the It's On Us pledge in Armstrong, and a screening and discussion of the film "It Happened Here:" a documentary that showed the testimonials of three sexual assault survivors with the actions they took against their universities after their cases were brushed off by their administrations.
"I was wondering how Miami compared to the schools in 'It Happened Here,'" junior Jessica Baker said. "It just seems that we are working towards getting better at it."
However, while students like Baker see that Miami is making strides with the issue, others acknowledge there is a lot of work to be done for the future.
Vice President of Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault (MARS), senior Tyler Schuppie, said efforts need to go beyond one week of events.
"It is a very important topic that I think needs to be taken seriously by everyone on campus," he said. "It is a 24/7 thing that people need to be aware about."
Pochiro said the campaign is only the start of what can be an impactful cultural change.
"I think sexual assault has been portrayed as a 'minimize the risk of it happening,' 'don't rape, don't get raped' culture instead of dealing with the underlying issues that causes it to happen," she said. "Figure out strategies that will be more helpful, fix the bigger issue."
Getson hopes the It's On Us campaign works with student organizations such as Women Against Violence and Sexual Assault (WAVES), MARS and F-word in their events for Sexual Assault Awareness month coming up in April.
"Any kind of change or culture shift takes time. Just like signing a pledge won't make everyone miraculously feel safe to come forward, one week's worth of events will not be enough to feel safe," Getson said. "What we see is that the more steps we take, the more likely that people will want to come forward and feel that culture shift is something that is safe and supportive."