Everybody knows about sexual assault, but how do we talk about it? And how do we move from awareness to action? recently facilitated a series of two dialogues with a group of 23 Residential Academic Program students in Farrand Hall. The series, entitled "'It鈥檚 On Us'-What Does 'It' Mean?" provided students with an opportunity to dig into the issue of sexual assault. As one participant pointed out, sexual assault is something that students often think about but don鈥檛 often talk openly about. On anonymous post-dialogue feedback forms, many students described the dialogue as 鈥渆ye-opening.鈥澨�
In the first dialogue, participants identified and examined the kinds of social messaging they receive about gender identity, sexuality, and sexual assault. Facilitators encouraged participants to reflect upon the relationship between social messaging about sexuality and their own responses and society鈥檚 responses to sexual assault. The dialogue format encouraged open discussion of difficult issues. "It was a very open and honest discussion,鈥� a female-identified participant noted. A male-identified student commented, "Once the dialogue got started, I felt like I could say anything.鈥� Another student echoed that sentiment: "No one shot me down.鈥�
In the second dialogue, participants created scenarios, based on their own experiences, of situations college students face. Real-life scenarios raised complex questions. For example, how does the concept of consent apply if the woman is the one making sexual advances in a heterosexual encounter? Students also raised the question of whether non-consensual video-taping of sex or posting photos on Buff Snaps is a form of sexual assault.听
The scenarios also challenged students to think through how they would act in specific circumstances involving sexual assault or the threat of assault. After the scenario exercise, one student pointed out that "all of us say we would step in" to intervene but the scenarios confronted students with complex situations that made them "think twice" as they tried to decide on the best course of action in the moment.
All participants found the dialogue a useful approach for addressing issues of sexual assault. One participant noted that hearing about others鈥� experiences made her realize how common sexual assault and violence are. Participants felt the dialogue exposed them to new strategies for listening to others and enabled them to collaborate with others to build a stronger community. On post-dialogue feedback forms, 100% of participants wrote that the dialogue would impact their future actions. Impacts included commitments to "speak up" and "act more confident and courageous.鈥� Several students noted that the dialogue provided insight that would change how they viewed or discussed sexual assault.听
The idea for piloting the dialogue series emerged from an Inter-Group Relations Working Group formed by CU Dialogues Program Co-Directors Ellen Aiken and Karen Ramirez, Assistant Vice-Chancellor Alphonse Keasley, and Assistant Professor of Communication Leah Sprain. The four attended the University of Michigan鈥檚 week-long Intergroup Relations (IGR) Institute as a team last summer. Farrand Hall Director Steph Parrish, a University of Michigan graduate who participated in Michigan鈥檚 IGR program as an undergrad, joined CU鈥檚 IGR Working group last fall, as did Pilar Prostko, the CU Dialogues Program Facilitator and Coordinator. Their collaboration was instrumental to implementing the pilot dialogues in Farrand. Jimmy McLeod, First-Year Success Advisor with CU鈥檚 Cultural Unity and Engagement Center, and Joshua LePree, PhD student in Sociology, helped facilitate the dialogues.听
The long-term goal of the IGR Working Group is to create and support a more inclusive campus climate by integrating intergroup dialogue into the undergraduate experience. One participant in the sexual assault pilot series wrote, 鈥淚 would love to see dialogue grow and expand to [include] more students.鈥� The CU Dialogues Program plans to refine the Sexual Assault Dialogue Series over the summer and offer it as a programming option to Residence Hall and RAP Directors in the fall.
For more information, contact the CU Dialogues Program at dialogues@colorado.edu or visit their website at: .