Successful It's On Us Week expanding to a month

The surest sign of an event’s success is its positive growth year after year. That’s certainly the case for the annual weeklong It’s On Us campaign, which concluded last week.

According to organizer John Sharp, It’s On Us Sex Week – and especially student engagement – was so successful that it’s being expanded to a full month next year, in April. Additional events will also be scheduled for fall semester 2019.

Here are a few highlights from the week:

• A total of 159 students attended Walk A Mile in Her Shoes. Spirits were high even though the event had to be moved from Hoernemann Stadium to Wickham Great Hall because of rain.
• A talk by male sexual assault survivor Tim Mousseau was a hit, with 246 students hearing his inspirational and important message.
• The members of Zeta Theta Psi and the women’s basketball team walked away with the “Outstanding Advocates” trophy this year.
• A number of student organizations and one class, Lucia Palmer’s Women and Gender Studies class, collaborated on various events. Those included BEC, College Democrats, Athletes Against All Violence and Greek Life (including Walk A Mile during Greek Week). Two students in Lucia’s class created add-ons during Walk A Mile by providing snacks and facts and survivor stories.
• Student Ayla Whaley was the winner of a $100 gift card in a drawing among event participants.
• In a survey, 86 percent of students who attended events strongly agreed or agreed that they felt more confident they could do something about sexual misconduct on campus.
• More students were involved in planning events during It’s On Us Sex Week.