Photo courtesy of I STAND campaign University of Nevada, Reno junior Paul Milke and sophomore Megan Heller hold a sign in the Joe Crowley Student Union to show their support for the I STAND campaign, Monday, Oct. 20. Its mission is to prevent sexual assault on campus.

Photo courtesy of I STAND campaign
University of Nevada, Reno junior Paul Milke and sophomore Megan Heller hold a sign in the Joe Crowley Student Union to show their support for the I STAND campaign, Monday, Oct. 20. Its mission is to prevent sexual assault on campus.

By Jennifer Marbley

More than 200 University of Nevada, Reno students attended the I STAND for Consent campaign’s launch event on Monday, Oct. 20 to spark a dialogue on how to end sexual assault on campus. The event drew students, faculty and U.S. Senator for Nevada Dean Heller, to discuss how UNR and the Reno community can take action.

Students lined up to sign the I STAND for Consent pledge in the Joe Crowley Student Union Milt Glick Ballroom. The pledge, found on the university’s Facebook page, allows students to commit to creating a safe community by promoting awareness of sexual violence and intervening when necessary.

Junior Elayna Winter heard about the campaign through advertisements on campus. Winter said that she agreed with the campaign’s mission and believes that topic of consent is an important one for college students.
“I am verbally taking [the pledge] and will follow through action-wise,” Winter said. “I believe highly that campaigns like this are important because it brings more awareness to our students and gets them more involved.”

The I STAND campaign is an ongoing program that seeks to engage the UNR community in a dialogue about sexual consent on campus and create steps in lowering the high statistics of sexual assault and rape. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five women and one in 71 men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetime. The I STAND campaign fights to reduce these instances of assault.

Some of the speakers included Alison Gaulden, a professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism, Heller and Jo Harvey, program specialist for the Office of Student Conduct.

Harvey is an organizer for the I STAND launch event and leads Green Dot trainings that focus on bystander intervention where sexual violence might take place. Harvey offered Green Dot training as one solution to lowering rates of assault on campus. She encouraged all students to stand against harmful behavior that includes bullying and hazing in addition to sexual violence.

“I hoped Monday night served as the beginning of more honest and compassionate conversations concerning the issue and that students will be inspired to seek more information and training,” Harvey said. “I have been amazed at the positive response from our students and their eagerness to get involved.”

There are other steps being made other than bystander intervention training in an attempt to combat assault on campus. Heller spoke at the event about ending sexual assault on college campuses through the promotion of new legislation.

In an interview with KRNV News 4 on Monday, Heller said that he was unsettled by the fact that 20 percent of women are sexually assaulted during their college years. This concern led the senator to combat sexual assault with the Campus Accountability and Safety Act, a piece of legislation that aims to ensure that students have adequate resources to address sexual violence. Sen. Heller acknowledged the university’s I STAND campaign as a step to bring attention to this issue.

“I applaud the university and its students for taking the initiative to launch I STAND to bring awareness and action to this topic,” Heller said in the interview. “It is my goal that students, universities and communities throughout the country will follow suit and make it a priority to end sexual assault.”

The Associated Students of the University of Nevada Sen. Owen Stewart was one of several students who attended the event. Stewart worked with organizers to help students sign the I STAND pledge.

“There are things that we can all do on an individual level and on a community level to help prevent it,”
Stewart said. “You can stand for consent. You can let other people know that you’re there with them and you cannot be a bystander anymore.”

Jennifer Marbley can be reached at jmarbley@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @missmarbley.