By Michael Mandigo, Staff Writer
The state of Pennsylvania is giving $30,000 to Susquehanna to combat sexual assault on campus as part of the national It’s On Us initiative.
President of the Susquehanna chapter of It’s On Us Brianna Knowlton believes this money is the first step to changing the culture on campus.
“In order to keep educating and training students, faculty, and staff on how to be good bystanders and advocates for survivors of sexual misconduct and assault, we need the resources and funding to make that happen,” she said.
“Especially given the current debate at the national level about changing Title IX rules, it’s imperative to do all we can to combat gender-based violence and sexual misconduct on our campus, and this grant will help us do that,” Knowlton added.
Susquehanna will be using its share of the money to fund the Green Dot bystander education program. A program created by Alteristic that aims to create a safe campus culture by relying on every one individual doing their part, according to the Alteristic website.
Overseer of the Violence, Intervention and Prevention Center, Christiana Paradis noted that this program is unique and thus also expensive.
“Our goal with this grant is to ingrain bystander intervention programming and our unique bystander intervention branding, #ProtectTheNest, into the culture here at Susquehanna, so that it is both effective and sustainable,” Paradis said.
The idea of the education program is to shift campus culture by targeting influential members of the community and educating them on how negative behavior can be prevented and what they can do to help.
Susquehanna will also train 30 members of the faculty in a train-the-trainers model which will then be implemented across campus, according to the Susquehanna website.
“The grant will allow for more programming that students, faculty, and staff can participate in and learn from, which will ideally make SU a safer and more open place for students, and especially for survivors of sexual assault,” Knowlton said.
Governor Tom Wolf’s administration announced that 38 colleges and universities throughout the state would be receiving nearly $1 million collectively for the initiative, according to the governor’s website.
The website also states that 2019 will mark the fourth consecutive year that the Wolf Administration has invested nearly a million dollars for the It’s On Us grants.
Launched in September of 2014, the program asks everyone involved with the university community to step up and take action against sexual assault.
The initiative aims to spark conversation nationally and locally by combining creative and innovative content and grassroots organization, according to the initiative’s website.