The It’s On Us Week of Action, held April 3-8, is a national initiative to prevent sexual violence on college campuses, and EMPOWER is getting UNMC involved.
 |
- One in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted in college;
- 40 percent of survivors fear reprisal by their attacker;
- Only 2 percent of incapacitated rape survivors report assault;
- Only 13 percent of rape survivors report assault; and
- Eight in 10 victims knew their attacker (friend, significant other, etc.).
“One way your organization or department can be involved is by participating in our video,” said Eyerusalem Lemma, an EMPOWER member and student in the cancer research graduate program. “Many schools record a video with the Lady Gaga song ‘Till it happens to you,’ a song featured in a documentary called “The Hunting Ground” that explored the sexual assault epidemic on college campuses.”
To participate, UNMC organizations or departments can record a 10-second video with colleagues standing together and hold up a sign with the name of the organization or department.
“The recording can be done with a smartphone, as long as the orientation is horizontal,” Lemma said. “We are incorporating as many departments, organizations, and student groups on the UNMC campus that want to make a stand against sexual assault on campus.”
The digital release of the video will be on April 3. The video snippets should be sent on or before March 24 to EMPOWER, with the organization or department’s name in the email.
Contact EMPOWER with any questions.
EMPOWER is a partnership between the Women’s Center for Advancement and the Service Learning Academy (SLA) hosted by the UNMC College of Public Health. The SLA offers unique interdisciplinary and interprofessional service-learning opportunities for undergraduate and graduate level students enrolled on the UNMC campuses.