Everyone has the right to a safe campus, devoid of sexual violence. In the light of campus violence, students and faculty members of Southeast Missouri State University have begun to unite and spread a common message: end sexual assault.
The #TunedIntoConsent campaign aims to shed light on campus rape and educate the masses on giving consent before engaging in sexual activity.
The campaign comes in the form of a set of posters that feature song lyrics rewritten as messages of consent. One flyer read, "If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get my consent," in an attempt to parody the British pop group The Spice Girls. What was once a simple Facebook post became a campus wide movement, which eventually made its way to multiple universities including Iowa State and Texas State University
When she caught wind of the #TunedIntoConsent hashtag, Campus Violence Protection Coordinator Brittany Talley said she felt the posters would be a great asset to bring to Southeast to promote the mission statement of the program.
"It was brought to my attention by a student, Ryan Rhodes, who got on a student affairs Facebook page," Talley said. "He sent me the image of it and I thought 'These would be really cool to have at Southeast'."
Staff members such as Title IX Investigator Kasey Fraser-Smith and Southeast Graduate Assistant of Campus Violence Protection Dona St. Sauver have banded together to support the campaign and promote its message as much as possible. This campaign aims to protect survivors of sexual assault and encourage everyone to be informed about consent.
"Brittany and I do a lot of outreach together," Smith said. "The Campus Violence Protection Program, along with the Office of Student Conduct, go to UI100 classes and talk about consent, along with the right and responsibilities of college students. We also discuss what behavior is appropriate and expected of them while they're Southeast students."
The Campus Violence Protection Program of Southeast aims to support survivors of sexual assault and combat interpersonal violence. The program serves as an outlet for students and staff to report violence and sexual misconduct and provides counseling for victims of campus violence.
According to graduate assistant of Campus Violence Protection St. Sauver, 95 percent of sexual assaults go unreported.
"It's really hard to get a number, and the numbers we do get are a small portion of the assaults that are actually occurring. Rape is recorded falsely at the same rate of other crimes," St. Sauver said. "That's the biggest problem that we face, and that's part of the work that we do here at CVPP. The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness."
Peyton Mogley, a sophomore at Southeast, said her efforts with the campaign won't end at sharing the assortment of posters scattered around campus. To Mogley, #TunedIntoConsent inspired her to take it one step further with a bigger project to expand its message.
"I indirectly became involved with it," Mogley said. "I noticed during resident assistant training that a counseling department was handing out sets of song parodies that promote consent messages. I thought it was brilliant, but I felt that I could make it even more brilliant. That's when I decided to do a video campaign. Over the next few weeks we'll be combining footage and putting together a video to encompass the 'tune' with singing to show the campus that it stands united with the message of consent."
The hashtag was created by University of North Dakota student Peyton Lipscomb. Those interested can learn more at tunedintoconsent.wordpress.com.
