By Sam Dintruff and Imani Brown
In the 1990s, several advocate groups began holding sexual violence events throughout the month of April. By the late 1990s, it became more common and called for a national month. Since 2001, April has been recognized in the United States as Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center promotes national unity for SAAM activities. They encourage interaction and feedback from across the nation to build momentum to prevent sexual violence. In 2010, a campaign was started that focused on college campuses. It included a presidential proclamation from Barack Obama, a Spectrum of Prevention, and a Campus Resource List.
Since then, Bradley University has taken several step in order to prevent sexual assault on campus. The Bradley HEAT (Help, Empower, and Teach) is a team of peers and students who educate campus on a variety of topics, including sexual health and sexual assault. HEAT assists with special events and services sponsored by the Wellness Program.
“Often in the month of April, we’ve kind of been leading the pack and kind of spearheading the make a move campaign. In HEAT, we have a Make a Move committee which is headed up by Janelle, and so, being one of our co-presidents she comes back to use with our report and then together we decide what’s the best course of action to move forward. The Bradley HEAT functions through the Office of Wellness Program which is under the Center for Student Support Services, and HEAT’s primary focus came out of the #makeyourmovebradley campaign, which was devised by Ann House, the Director of Student Support Services, and Lyndsey Hawkins, the former Interim Director of Wellness,” according to Denzel Washington, co-president of HEAT.
All incoming freshmen are required to attend a lecture during orientation. In addition, near the beginning of the year, all dorm residents are required to attend a lecture and take anonymous surveys about their encounters in campus.
It is estimated that between 20% and 25% of women will experience a completed and/or attempted rape during their college career.
“It’s kind of hard sometimes to get up to date statistics because once things go so underreported, there’s always contradictory statistics, but the few main ones that we like to focus on is: one in five females in college will be a survivor of sexual assault, and one in sixteen men will be a survivor of sexual assault. We think that those numbers are even higher than what they are and that’s just because a lot of the time things go unreported. But also a lot of the time, students are at risk for sexual assault,” says Washington.
In addition to informing the campus, HEAT also offers free condoms that say “Got consent?” on the wrapper. The program itself was added to persuade students to save money and not risk a pregnancy. The slogan was added recently. In addition, there are several flyers posted in campus buildings and in dorm halls persuading students to report “inappropriate conduct” seen on campus. HEAT strongly encourages all Bradley students to sign up to help fight sexual assault on campus.
“It’s kind of making more people on campus aware that if you see something happening, that you’re going to step up and you’re going to take the initiative to stop something. And just kind of be able to recognize those small warning signs of a couple arguing, and just kind of noticing little things like that. And then being willing to take the initiative to step up,” says Matthew Miller, Graduate Assistant for the Wellness Program.
“Another big aspect, especially for the Wellness Program and with HEAT, is consent, and making sure that you get that clear consent every time. We’ve had a lot of good social media and things like that, good events with April and sexual assault awareness month. I feel like this past year it got a little ramped up a bit and not just because of the Wellness Program, but more because of the entire campus that we’ve had involved with it. We had Student Activities that were involved, Student Senate, Residential Life, Athletics, Campus Recreation, everyone was really great.”
This past month, the Pillowcase Project is a visual display held on campus to raise awareness regarding the issue of sexual violence in our society. Each pillowcase is decorated to represent a particular persons’s experience. The pillowcase can be decorated by the survivor themselves or by someone who cares about them. When the pillowcases are hung together on a clothesline to be viewed by others, they provide a powerful testimonial to the problem of sexual violence in society. Some choose to make a pillowcase based on their own experience, and can include the name, date, or any signs or symbols they would like. However, some people choose to make a pillowcase for someone else, and it is requested that that person remain anonymous and not use any identifiable information.
“Sexual assault affects a lot of people regardless of gender so it is essential that people are aware of it so that the chances of it happening are reduced,” says HEAT member Erin Julius. “The more awareness there is the more likely someone can step in or notice when situations can accelerate.
“The students responded very well to the events. We educated a lot on the bystander effect and consent during April event so having the student participation was important. They students enjoyed getting free shirts and food but in return we made sure they where being educated. We also had faculty support in our events. Without the approval from Student Affairs, we wouldn’t have been able to be so vocal about such topics so we were fortunate to be able to share our information with campus.”
It’s been a busy April for the members of HEAT, and although the month is over, it’s not something they tend to forget about for the rest of the year. Sexual Assault Awareness Month is meant to call attention to an important issue, and HEAT has made an affective impact that will hopefully remain in the back of students’ minds.
Watch this video to learn more about the Bradley HEAT!