On Tuesday, the Student Coalition for Sexual Violence Prevention hosted a Tulane Tuesday event in the Lavin-Bernick Center for Student Life to bring awareness to the beginning of Sexual Assault Awareness week. This event was a part of a larger campaign, Tulane’s All In initiative, which aims to demonstrate the university’s commitment to ending sexual violence.

The All In initiative, which launched in the fall of 2018, strives to highlight that “the damaging impact of sexual violence is something that affects us all and it will take all of us to bring about lasting change.”

To gain student input into All In, the Student Coalition was formed. The coalition is a group of students who work with administrators and experts to advise university policy combating sexual assault on campus and provide multi-level opportunities to be involved in the process.

“The Student Coalition for Sexual Violence Prevention and Response brings together students from across campus and student organizations to work on issues related to sexual violence prevention and response at Tulane,” Title IX Program Manager Julia Broussard said.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, students who are a part of the coalition passed out information on sexual assault and engaged with their peers. They also offered giveaways and free popcorn to students in the LBC to promote the event.

“Events like Tulane Tuesday obviously won’t solve sexual violence, but they provide a chance for everyday students to see that there are people on campus doing the work who are there for them,” Simran Jain, Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline and Education president, said. “Creating visibility is beneficial in getting people who wouldn’t normally go to an event about this topic to keep it on their radar.”

SAPHE is another student organization that has been working to support victims and prevent the assault. SAPHE runs a 24/7 student-led hotline and hosts workshops on rape culture amongst other programming.

“We have SAPHE representatives on both the student coalition and the coalition including administration which allows us to have a valuable voice in decision making,” Jain said. “As we move to a departmental organization under campus health next year, I see our connection to All In becoming deeper and more formalized.”

The All In initiative has also paired with different departments and offices on campus to reach a larger audience, stimulate conversation and promote scholarly research on sexual assault.

The Office of Gender and Sexual Diversity is to publish student-written articles through their weekly e-newsletter throughout the month of April. These articles will focus on sexual violence in the LGBTQ+ community, the #MeToo movement, how race and gender relate to sexual experiences and more.

Another partnership is through the Violence Prevention Institute, where scholars and researchers from an array of campus departments have joined together to gain insights into the causes and effects of all forms of violence.

As one of the faculty in the institute, Gretchen Clum of the School of Public Health has been working on numerous projects focusing on sexual violence. One in particular focused on the impact of the 2016 Reading project book “Asking for It: The Alarming Rise of Rape Culture—and What We Can Do About It” by Kate Harding.

“Preliminary results suggest that beliefs in rape myths, which we know are associated with blaming sexual assault survivors, and perpetrating of sexual violence, were reduced after reading the book,” Clum said.

The All In initiative demonstrates the ways that students, faculty and staff can all come together to create solutions to end sexual violence. Visit https://allin.tulane.edu/node/2474 to see upcoming All In events and find ways to get involved.