Last year the White House announced the creation of the Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault in an effort to reduce cases of sexual assault on college campuses.
The task force created many measures aimed at reducing sexual assault, which included “Not Alone,” a comprehensive website, www.notalone.gov, with resources for survivors of assault.
A public awareness campaign called “It’s On Us,” which features celebrities and politicians appearing on-camera with information about sexual assault, was also established.
But how effective are these measures at accomplishing our goals of ending sexual assault on our college campuses?
At IU, these efforts might not be amounting to much. The Indiana Daily Student has reported seven rapes on or near campus since the academic year began. As one of the PSAs on the “It’s On Us” website puts it, “just one rape is one too many.”
I think one of the biggest issues with the task force is there’s simply not enough publicity about it. I was unaware of the task force, its mission and resources until I came across news articles of the president announcing the initiative.
Those articles were uploaded more than a year ago.
That is unfortunate, because the task force has done an outstanding job. The information on www.notalone.gov is easily accessible. People can download a comprehensive report of the task force’s findings and locate any and all data relevant to sexual assault. The report also includes resources about how sexual assault can be prevented and what proper steps universities should take in handling sexual assault cases.
Yet it took some Googling for me to find the website to begin with.
I think publicity and media partnerships between the “Not Alone” website and sexual assault crisis services on all campuses — not just Bloomington’s — could result in a greater number of people becoming aware of what resources exist in regards to sexual assault.
Another issue is the series of PSAs “It’s On Us” produced don’t clearly connect the group with the “Not Alone” website.
While the “Not Alone” website has links to the PSAs, the PSAs don’t include links to the “Not Alone” website. Instead, they provide a link to two different webpages: www.itsonus.org and www.whitehouse.gov/1is2Many.
This is particularly troublesome, as the whole goal of the “It’s On Us” campaign is to provide the public with information about sexual assault. The PSAs should at least mention the “Not Alone” website.
While I applaud the federal government for taking sexual assault seriously, I argue it needs to do more to coordinate its media resources successfully.
That way, “It’s On Us” can be a reality for everyone.
ttfitzpa@indiana.edu
@tfitzwrites
