Men who stay silent when their buddies assault women are about to get an earful, thanks to a national public-service campaign that President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will announce on Friday.
It’s called “It’s On Us,” and the “us” actually stands for everyone on a campus who can take steps to prevent sexual assault. But the campaign, which is being joined by student leaders at about 200 colleges, is urging men in particular to step in when threats of violence occur.
Everyone should commit to creating an environment, “be it a dorm room, a party, a bar or club, or the greater college campus,” the White House said in a statement on Friday, “where sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported.”
The campaign is being launched in partnership with the Center for American Progress and will feature celebrity-studded public-service announcements and a brand and a logo that campuses can customize. Reminders will be embedded in video games and posted at bus stops; they’ll pop up on Twitter and flash on football scoreboards.
The White House said the campaign is part of a multipronged effort to prevent sexual violence on college campuses. Joining the effort will be sports organizations, including the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and private companies.
Senior White House officials described the effort during a call with reporters on Thursday in which they asked not to be named, apparently so as not to upstage the president on Friday. “‘It’s On Us’ reflects the belief that all of us should be part of the solution in preventing sexual assault,” one official said. Colleges should be held accountable, and survivors of sexual violence need to know they’re not alone, she added.
Young men often wrongly assume that their peers are comfortable with violence and are reluctant to speak up when a woman is being mistreated, the officials said, adding that it was time “to create new social norms.”
Many colleges are already focusing on what’s known as “bystander education,” which seeks to dispel misperceptions about sexual assault and give people the confidence to intervene in a potentially violent situation.
A Shift in Thinking
As part of the latest effort, the U.S. Department of Justice will distribute a total of $6-million to 18 colleges for programs to prevent and respond to violence. The campaign will also release three new “best practices” documents to help colleges handle incidents of sexual violence. It’s unclear how much those documents will add to the 20-page list of recommendations for campuses that the White House released in April and that many campuses are already struggling to follow.
The documents will be posted on NotAlone.gov, a government-backed website with resources on preventing sexual violence in schools and colleges, and will offer sample policy language to help colleges strengthen the role of Title IX coordinators, provide support for victims, and define conduct that should be prohibited.
It comes at a time when sexual assault stands as one of the most publicized and difficult issues campus leaders face. More than 70 colleges are being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights over their compliance with rules governing sexual violence under Title IX, a key federal gender-equity law. State and national lawmakers have proposed legislation on the issue.
Meanwhile, some men have complained that campus officials are too quick to assume men are guilty of assaults when the facts are murky.
The White House released a statement on Friday saying the new campaign “aims to fundamentally shift the way we think about sexual assault, by inspiring everyone to see it as their responsibility to do something, big or small, to prevent it.”
Among the other partners, the NCAA will publicize the campaign at sporting events and will hold a half-day session at its annual convention, in January, on preventing sexual assault and violence.
Other partners include the American Association of University Women and media and advertising companies.
