“She knew what she was doing when she slept over.”
This statement is an example of the dialogue students must respond to in Think About It, the mandatory online course Capital implemented this year to educate the campus community on the prevention of rape, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault.
Jennie Smith, Dean of Students, said, “The Campus SaVE Act requires that all higher education institutions make a training and awareness program available to all employees and students.”
The course includes videos, quizzes, polls, and articles for students to interact with for the reward of points and badges. Designed by students at the University of San Francisco, Think About It is now used at many campuses to adhere to Title IX and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act of 2013, otherwise known as the Campus Save Act.
Brianna Gauger, first-year, said she thought the course was informative and realistic.
“It’s important that college kids are actually required to learn about sexual assault and how to deal with it when or if it happens,” Gauger said.
Yet, some members of the campus community fear people will not take the course seriously and will, instead, do the minimum amount of work required. A hack leaked online gives instruction on how to skip through the course, an example of the downside to using technology to teach students.
“Doing it online is good for convenience, but I think in-person would be the better way to get the info to students,” Ashton Zurbriggen, first-year, said.
It’s Abuse is an organization on campus that says its mission is “to create awareness about and eliminate abuse on campus in order to create a better Capital University for the generations to come.”
The leaders of It’s Abuse had much to say about the new program.
“Research shows that online courses are not effective. It’s made to be mandatory, but you have to be motivated to actually learn about it,” Rachel Comi, co-leader of It’s Abuse, said.
It’s Abuse is currently doing a research study on campus about sexual assault prevention in programs on campus. The organization has created an in-classroom course similar to Think About It but more interactive and can be tailored toward specific areas that students need to be aware of.
Sarah Nist, co-leader of It’s Abuse, says that the next best step is to spread awareness on campus.
“I think it’s good, generally, for all freshman to have some sort of basis, but at the same time, I feel like the campus needs to implement more events or generate more awareness on campus to get more interest up,” Nist said. “Maybe once people have more interest, people will be more motivated to make behavior changes.”
Smith said, “We want our community to be engaged in a higher level of awareness around these concerns and to create a safe campus for all … [The course] allows us to reach the majority of the campus, but is not the only method we use for delivery of this information.”
