Events planned for Sexual Assault Awareness Month

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Solidarity walks, speakers, educational displays and a film are some of the events planned in April as Rochester Institute of Technology participates in Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

“RIT recognizes Sexual Assault Awareness Month by collaborating with many campus and local partners,” said Stacy DeRooy, RIT’s Title IX coordinator and Clery compliance officer. “We want to share the message of a supportive, caring community while raising awareness about sexual assault.”

“One person can make all the difference in the life of a possible victim,” said Breanna Marshall, president of the Alpha Lambda Charter of Sigma Psi Zeta.

• April 1-30: Messages of hope which have been collected in The Wallace Center will be on display near the circulation desk, along with reading material on sexual assault awareness.
• April 2: Heel Violence will raise money and awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence with a mile walk in heels (optional) to show support. It begins at noon in RIT’s U Lot. Money raised—$10 for children and students, $15 for faculty and $20 for the public—will go to IGNITE, which provides services to people who are deaf, deaf/blind or hard of hearing and have experienced domestic violence or sexual abuse. Free T-shirts will go to the first 100 walkers.
• April 3: 720 orange flags will be placed on the lawn in front of the Student Alumni Union to represent the 720 people who experience sexual violence each day in the United States. Resource information will be available throughout the day. The flags can be seen from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
• April 3–30: Resource information, posters and flags will be on display in the Student Alumni Union.
• April 3–6: You can show solidarity by painting your left ring fingernail teal. The “Put The Nail In It” event will be in the SAU lobby from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day to show support of Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
• April 8: A self-defense program by Sgt. Robert Marshall from the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office will be held in Institute Hall, sponsored by Sigma Psi Zeta. RSVP to syzrit@gmail.com by April 5 to register, which costs $5 per person.
• April 17: Pastor John Pavlovitz, who has been vocal about the consequences of sexual assault, will give a talk at 7:30 p.m. in Ingle Auditorium. People of all ages, genders and community roles will be reading the survivor letter from the Stanford, Calif., rape case from 2015. This event is free and open to the public.
• April 25: The film Yeah Maybe No, about consent and the complexity of sexual assault, will be shown at 6 p.m. in the Mosaic Center. It is free and open to the public.
• April 26: “Denim Day,” when participants in solidarity are encouraged to wear denim to raise awareness. The origins come from Italy in 1999, after judges there reversed a rape conviction, saying the victim must have consented because she wore jeans so tight she had to take them off herself.

The events are sponsored by RIT’s Title IX Office, The Center for Women and Gender, Alpha Sigma Alpha and Sigma Phi Zeta sororities, Sex in the Brick City Wellness Team from Student Affairs, and Restore Sexual Assault Services (formerly Rape Crisis).

For more information visit the RIT Title IX and resources webpage.