The second annual It’s On Us National Week of Action will have a greater focus on increasing student involvement and initiatives for years to come.

The week of awareness at Syracuse University will be held from Oct. 10 to Oct. 14.

It’s On Us is a national campaign and cultural movement that aims to shift how the United States thinks about sexual assault. It was developed by the Center for American Progress in conjunction with the White House. SU is among its university partners.

Samantha Skaller, a senior viola performance and music history and cultures double major, is spearheading the week with support from the Office of Health Promotion. Last year she was one of the 17 members on the national It’s On Us Student Advisory Committee. She is now the northeast regional leader for the campaign.

“Last year was more about awareness,” Skaller said. “… The goal this year is to create institutional awareness about this and institutional memory, but also creating more preventative measures.”

Michelle Goode, a health promotion specialist in the Office of Health Promotion, said the week is important because people are often fearful to talk about these issues and it is important for people to know that there are offices and people available to provide them with support.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday students will be tabling at Ernie Davis Dining Center, Sadler Dining Center and the Schine Student Center, respectively. A large portion of the tabling will be done in dining halls in an effort to get more first- and second-year students involved and aware of what is going on, Skaller said.

A campus-wide office decorating contest will kick off on Monday, and participants are asked to primarily use the colors teal and purple. Teal represents sexual assault awareness and purple is for domestic violence awareness.

“Although It’s On Us really focuses on sexual violence, all interpersonal violence is really connected,” Skaller said.

The contest is a way to get faculty, staff and administrators more involved in student activism on campus. Judging for the contest will happen throughout the week and the results will be announced Friday. Skaller said she wants faculty and staff to know they have a place within the campaign and their input is always appreciated and wanted.

Skaller added that faculty, staff and administrators are the ones who are on campus beyond the four years of a student and it is important that they are aware of the issues, get informed on the related processes and show their support so students know their classroom or office is a safe space.

Teal Tuesday and Music With a Bystander Message will be held on Oct. 11. Members of the SU community are encouraged to wear teal on Tuesday to show their support for sexual assault survivors. As the regional leader for the northeast, Skaller has spread Teal Tuesday to as many campuses in the northeast as possible.

Music With a Bystander Message is a workshop with an education session followed by a creative songwriting process. The songs will be used as a way to create dialogue about sexual assault awareness and bystander intervention.

“The best part about that is this group of people who are coming to do this workshop are going to all 50 states in the next year and want to highlight one music video from each state,” Skaller said. “And they chose Syracuse University to represent New York state.”

Aside from the week’s events, Skaller will also be doing a lot of social media campaigns. Public service announcements created by different student organizations and university departments will be released throughout the week.

“I like that there are different approaches,” Goode said. “I think that is where it becomes really effective because the more different groups that we can reach … then the more we’re going to get our messaging out there.”

Since Skaller will be graduating in May 2017, she has been giving It’s On Us presentations to about 35 student organizations to empower younger students to take on the initiative for next year.

Skaller said she hopes the university will continue to spread awareness outside of the week of action. She wants first-year students to be exposed to information and resources about consent, healthy relationships and preventative action to instill an institutional memory.

“Everyone is capable of creating this type of change but it needs to be a priority,” Skaller said. “… There is still so much work that needs to be done to prevent sexual violence at Syracuse University and I hope eventually that we can eliminate it altogether.”

Published on October 5, 2016 at 9:04 pm

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB