Not Anymore, Augustana’s newest mandatory sexual assault course, seeks to prevent and train Augustana students with in-depth information about sexual assault after being released to the campus on Sept. 15.
Not Anymore has to be completed by all sophomores, juniors and seniors by Oct. 30 or they will not be able to register for spring classes, said Evelyn Campbell, dean of students.
She said the course is to promote safety for all students.
“We are extremely concerned about safety,” Campbell said. “We want to prevent any cases of sexual assault.”
Part of what brought about this new course was federal guidelines and regulations under Title IX and the deadline for applying these regulations before early 2016.
Laura Ford, chief Title IX coordinator, said the guidelines and regulations are precise.
“The new regulations do call for some very specific things,” Ford said. “One of those things is that we have provided training to every student and to every responsible party, which we are going to consider every employee a responsible party.”
Campbell said this action needed to be done.
“One sexual assault is too many, and if it can do anything to reduce sexual assault, then it’s worth everyone’s time,” Campbell said.
A culture change is one of the end goals Ford has in mind for this course.
“Many have equated it to our drunk driving initiatives,” Ford said.
“No one ever thought drunk driving is great, let’s promote that. Then this huge culture change to this generation of students who realize that this is a huge problem and to prevent that from happening. I think that with consent and informed consent that it will be that same kind of change.”
The course was purchased from the company Student Success for $3,500. Campbell supports it for being one of the best ways the administration can combat sexual assault.
“We wanted to bring the best to students,” Campbell said. “We are doing it to educate, prevent, and train.”
The course will involve more than seven sections such as stalking, consent, bystander information, and more. The sections will all be accompanied by video.
Campbell said the video will be more effective than reading text.
“I like (the videos) because it is more interactive and representative of college experience,” Campbell said.
“I hope they’ll be more drawn to it and it will evoke plans on what the students can do.”
While the email sent out by the dean of student’s office stated the course is required for all sophomores, juniors and seniors, the first-years will have to take the course in November.
Campbell explained that because the first-years were taking alcohol.edu, the administration didn’t want to overload them, so they are giving it to them in November.
Ford said the administration is still trying to find the best time to present this course to the first-years.
“I think there’s a lot of questions when is the right time to share this message,” Ford said. “For most students this is back when they are living at home. I think we’ll need to examine the timing.”
Ford is hoping the course will work.
“Whether this works is do our students respond to it and learn from it and does it help to create a behavior change,” Ford said. “I think we’ll have to get feedback and see if we have to customize it more or scrap it.”
Beyond the course, there are more plans to bring sexual assault awareness to the campus such as live bystander training sessions, sexual assault discussions and more.
