Governor Tom Wolf announced the “It’s On Us PA” campaign to create resources for victims of sexual assault and help improve awareness and prevention of cases at universities in the state.
Point Park University’s Title IX Coordinator Elizabeth Rosemeyer was a bit curious about the campaign.
“Since Obama introduced it a while ago, it was new to me to hear Wolf was trying to take a statewide approach to it,” Rosemeyer said.
Wolf made the announcement of the campaign at Elizabethtown College. While optimistic, Rosemeyer is a bit skeptical to bring it to Point Park.
“It is certainly a campaign that we have discussed, [but] there are a lot of other campaigns that are either similar or… different [enough] that may fit Point Park’s [situation] better,” she said.
According to Governor Wolf’s website and announcement video, the goals of the campaign will be to “improve awareness, prevention, reporting, and response systems… to remove… barriers that prevent survivors from reporting sexual assault… [and] to demonstrate that we are committed, at all levels, to the task of eradicating this scourge in Pennsylvania.”
Initially introduced by the Obama Administration on Sept. 19, 2014, President Obama said in his press conference for the program “we’re taking a step and joining with people across the country to change our culture and help prevent sexual assault from happening.”
In the release of this campaign, he made a note of “stepping up enforcement efforts” and how he “created a task force to protect students from sexual assault [who are] training school officials in how to handle trauma.”
Point Park already has a program in place called “Not On My Campus.” The Not On My Campus program is more direct to Point Park, while the It’s On Us campaign are state—and nation-wide programs aimed for general implementation at universities. In other words, it’s a template to be adapted specifically to each university.
Rosemeyer also said that the “Not On My Campus” program is “working on a campaign they’re hoping to do this spring that, basically, you take a pledge just like you do with ‘It’s On Us,’ and this pledge is a little more specific to Point Park, and you’re basically pledging ‘Not On My Campus.’”
Wyatt Cree, a freshman broadcast reporting major at Point Park, said that the campaign “won’t really affect, I think, college students, at least now, until they come up with something.”
Cristin Yoder, a freshman animation major, was unfamiliar with the program. She was also unfamiliar with Point Park’s pledge program “Not On My Campus.”
“I don’t see any difference [between the programs],” Yoder said.
“The information you get out there is better, but you don’t want people duplicating efforts at the same time,” Rosemeyer said.
