Originally published in the Nov. 19, 2014 edition of the Sunflower.
Individuals in the Wichita community are not strangers to news headlines pertaining to sexual assault, particularly after a 36-year old woman was beaten, sexually assaulted and burned in Fairmount Park late Friday night.
However, President Obama said on Sept. 20 this is not simply a localized problem — but, rather, a national epidemic that everyone should be aware of.
As a result, Obama and vice president Joe Biden launched the “It’s On Us” campaign — an effort to spread awareness and help end sexual assault on men and women on college campuses across the country.
As a part of the campaign’s week of action, Wichita State and other college campuses are hosting a place for students and faculty to take the “It’s On Us” pledge.
At a booth set up in the Rhatigan Student Center on Wednesday, WSU community members were able to pledge their efforts to combat sexual assault and explore resources available to further their knowledge of sexual assault from both on and off-campus organizations, such as the Wichita Area Sexual Assault Center (WASAC) and the School of Social Work, who also had booths set up in the RSC.
“When the community needs us, we come out,” said Marty Spence, volunteer coordinator of the Sexual Assault Center. “With the It’s On Us campaign, sexual assault is obviously the prevalent issue — and we have started to see more media coverage [of the topic].”
In light of recent community events, talks of sexual assault and violence have been traveling through campus more often than before — along with the recent attack at Fairmount Park, a reported rape at Shocker Hall in September has caused more students to notice a growing problem in the community.
“I have been hearing a lot of stuff in the newspapers and in the media,” said Christine Siemon, a junior technical theater student. “I have been thinking, ‘oh wow, this has been a problem lately. [Sexual assault] is an awful thing to go through and everyone should work to recognize and prevent it.”
Wichita State’s Student Government Association is working to ensure that the week of action isn’t just a week, said Jessica Packard, SGA’s campus issues chair.
“April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month so SGA is going to be reworking with SAC and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to plan a week full of activities,” Packard said. “In April, we want to follow up [the It’s On Us campaign] with a whole week full of activities, speakers and tabling events.”
Although the “It’s On Us” National Week of Action ends tomorrow, Spence said action toward spreading awareness and ending sexual assault should not end when the events are over.
“I would like to see more conversations taking place,” Spence said. “When you are at an event and you see behavior that is unhealthy, intervention is so important — pending it is a safe situation, stand up and say ‘enough is enough,’ because that is what it takes.”
Featured image caption: WSU student Gabby Owens pledges Nov. 19, 2014 as part of the “It’s On Us” campaign, a nationwide effort to combat sexual assault, rape and violence on college campuses. (Kevin Brown/The Sunflower)