By Melanie Escalante
Photo by Melanie Escalante
Sexual assault awareness month emphasizes the need for students to be aware of preventative actions and supportive resources on campus.
The Risk Intervention and Safety Education program and the Title IX office on campus are available to every Texas Tech student whether they’re in need of preventive support or support after an incident has happened.
Haley Wallace, program manager of communication, design and marketing for RISE, said sexual assault awareness month isn’t just important on campus but worldwide.
“It’s a really important month so we can share stories from survivors, kind of destigmatize some myths or conceptions that might go along with sexual assault but also work on prevention education and consent education,” Wallace said.
RISE showcases “The clothesline project” in Weymouth-Chitwood hall and other dorms across campus to raise awareness for domestic and sexual violence behind closed doors. The various colors of the t-shirts represent different forms of violence. Students share words of support to survivors of incest or childhood sexual abuse.
Students share words of support to survivors of incest or childhood sexual abuse.
Wallace said RISE has trained peer educators and specialists who give educational presentations about consent; what it is, what it is not and when to not give consent. Most of the time students will interact with educators their age so the information can be related back in a way that is useful to them and accepted.
“We have a partnership with some bars and FSL which is called safe night out. We’ll go in and train different bars around town to be safe and not like overpour drinks,” Wallace said. “Since alcohol plays a large role in sexual assault it’s kind of helping provide students with a better environment so that they want to go out.”
Wallace said prevention education places an emphasis on bystander intervention.
The program informs students on how to identify if someone is in a safe position, when it is necessary to intervene and how to intervene.
“It builds a culture where if everyone’s checking on people it’s less possible for assaults to occur,” Wallace said.
Wallace said the increase in reporting sexual assaults on campus is thought to be a result of people feeling more comfortable reporting, not necessarily more acts of sexual assault occurring.
“From our standpoint, more reporting helps us seek justice, provide students resources and so while as a student when I was in college I think I got maybe five crime alerts the entire time I went to school,” Wallace said. “It’s definitely increased ten fold but we think that’s very likely a positive trend of reports coming up, not necessarily the assaults in total.”
Meredith Holden, associate Title IX coordinator, said Title IX works with students who have been involved in some sort of sexual trauma or sexual misconduct.
“Our office is referral based meaning that people reach out to us and say, ‘hey I have a friend’ or a professor says, ‘hey a student mentioned to me that this happened to them,’ or the student themselves can reach out and say, ‘this has happened and I’m seeking help,’” Holden said.
Holden said her job is to help students navigate what school and life looks like after the sexual trauma or misconduct has occurred.
“The main thing I talk to students about is getting counseling services whether it’s on or off campus, talking to students about their safety where they live, like if it happened on campus, if it happened in your residence hall — would you need to get moved to a new residence hall?” Holden said. “Sometimes it’s parking services so do you not feel comfortable walking to and from your vehicle.”
Holden said she always offers to reach out to faculty members, the students’ place of work or their organization supervisors to let them know that the student is working with the Title IX office. She said she doesn’t disclose any specific information for the sake of the student’s privacy and those involved in the case will not know that the student came to talk to their office.
“It’s hard to figure out who to go to like, ‘is this normal, am I being dramatic?’” Holden said. “Those are all questions students have asked me and I always tell them, ‘you need to empower yourself to do what you feel the most comfortable with.’”
Holden said the biggest piece of advice she gives students is to always be aware of your surroundings.
“Don’t be distracted, don’t have your airpods in all the time, make sure your phone stays charged just so if you ever do need to call someone you have that phone available and to remember there’s blue lights across campus that are great options for students to choose that emergency response,” Holden said.
Texas Tech encourages students, faculty and staff to participate in Denim Day on April 27 by wearing denim all day all over campus.
According to Denim Day Info website, campaign began in Italy after a rape conviction was overturned because the justices felt that since the victim was wearing tight jeans, she had to have helped to take them off and implied consent. The next day the women in the Italian parliament came to work wearing jeans to show their support and started a worldwide movement.
For more information on RISE: https://www.depts.ttu.edu/rise/
If you are a student experiencing a mental health crisis, suicidal thoughts, sexual assault, or interpersonal violence you may contact the Texas Tech Helpline: 806-742-5555
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