Students pledged to Step In and Speak Up when they witness sexual assault, as a part of the Ball State adaption of a federal program about bystander intervention.
The Step In. Speak Up. campaign is an adaption of It’s On Us campaign, which was started by the White House.
Because Ball State already had similar programs in place, the university chose to use wording that students were already familiar with.
“We wanted to have our own brand,” Thomas Gibson, associate vice president for student affairs, said.
Gibson said since most people are bystanders, it’s important to have many programs focusing on them.
“That’s where I think we can be most helpful to folks - when they serve as bystanders,” Gibson said. “They have that opportunity to step in, speak up and do something.”
Posters in the residence halls have been up all semester with the saying ‘Do Something. Step In. Speak Up.’
Katie Slabaugh, associate dean of students and title IX coordinator for student affairs, said in doing this, they hoped students would recognize the wording.
“We wanted to keep the messaging around the key components [of It’s on Us], and as with any social media campaign, we hope it becomes the institution making this an event or occasion or occurrence and then it belongs to and students adopt it as their own,” Slabaugh said.
Slabaugh said sexual assault is important because it's harmful for everybody.
“Your friends are going to be hurt if something happens, they’ll feel bad. Obviously offenders, this is a life-changer for them, absolutely a life-changer for victims,” Slabaugh said.
Nineteen percent of undergraduate women have experienced attempted or completed sexual assault while in college, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Rae Hines, a senior telecommunications major, signed the pledge in the lobby of the Letterman Building. She said she thought sexual assault was especially a problem here.
“A lot of people when they’re at parties and drinking, don’t look out for their friends,” Hines said. “I’ve seen a lot of girls walking home alone.”
But she said compared to other universities, Ball State was relatively safe and there were not many sexual assaults.
Paige Schueren was visiting campus for the first time from Crawfordsville, and she stopped at the Scramble Light to take the pledge.
“I believe that no one should be pressured to do anything they don’t want to do,” Schueren said.
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