by Jonelle Bobak<\/p>\n
Five members of Gardner Webb\u2019s Student Government Association traveled to Elon University to attend a sexual assault conference. They went to represent GWU and were exposed to many issues in today\u2019s society.<\/p>\n
They heard various speakers and participated in several sessions dealing with aspects, such as, how to help a sexual assault victim and being aware of others as a bystander.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard guest speakers on how the culture is now,\u201d said Jessica Saltijeral, the Executive Council Secretary. \u201cWe talked about many sensitive issues.\u201d Things like being aware of your surroundings, learning how to recognize victims of sexual assault and how to stop it before it happens, were all discussed.<\/p>\n
Saltijeral said it was a nice conference because it brought the group back to reality. They were given a set of questions to answer about GWU\u2019s policies and guidelines for sexual assault and what steps would be taken if something happen on campus.<\/p>\n
A week before the conference Dr. Carey Poole was hired as Assistant Vice President for Title IX Compliance.<\/p>\n
According to www.knowyourix.org<\/a>, Title IX is defined as, \u201c\u2026 a landmark federal civil right that prohibits sex discrimination in education.\u201d In the\u00a0GWU\u2019s Student Handbook <\/a> on page 88-90 it assesses Title IX and assaults. It explains the different forms of assault, guidelines to prevent sexual assault, what to do in the case of sexual assault (whether victim or bystander) and what to do immediately after an attack.<\/p>\n Saltijeral appreciated the session about bystanders. \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to walk up to a person who looks uncomfortable or distraught,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n They watched a video called \u201cWho Are You<\/a>\u201d which places the viewer in the \u2018hot seat\u2019 and gives multiple scenarios of when a bystander could help a possible victim of sexual assault.<\/p>\n Emily DeVries, a junior member of SGA, attended the conference as well. She has seen many things from the conference that she wants to implement on campus.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving a clear strategy and knowing what the go-to is in the GWU Handbook and promoting it more,\u201d said DeVries. She wants students to be more aware of what the policies are.<\/p>\n Startling statistics were also mentioned at the conference. \u201cNinety percent of perpetrators are someone you know,\u201d said DeVries.<\/p>\n At this conference SGA brought back ideas that they may want to apply on campus. One of them was Take Back Night, a night where students raise awareness of sexual violence by walking around campus at night and speaking on the issue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe point is for people to have the ability to walk around campus without being afraid,\u201d said Caitlyn Brotherton, another member of SGA. They would have other survivors speak, as well. \u201cSomething that I think is important that GWU doesn\u2019t have is activists that are productive and proactive,\u201d said Brotherton.<\/p>\n To learn more about what the SGA members learned you can click this link: It\u2019s On Us <\/a>Campaign website<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Jonelle Bobak Five members of Gardner Webb\u2019s Student Government Association traveled to Elon University to attend a sexual assault conference. They went to represent GWU and were exposed to many issues in today\u2019s society. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}