It’s On Us has spent the school year taking action to prevent sexual assault at MU in a revitalized mission as passion for prevention dwindles on campus.
About the author: Grace Nielson is the Chapter Director of MU’s It’s On Us and is about to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in social work.
College campuses set the table for every major issue. But some topics only emerge as brief trends instead of rights-centered problems.
I started working in sexual violence prevention advocacy after my own experience with intimate partner violence. I became involved with a domestic violence shelter in Columbia as a residential victim advocate, alongside involvement in campus prevention efforts and now serve as the chapter director of MU’s It’s On Us, a chapter under the national organization that seeks to end sexual assault on college campuses.
Founded in 2018, our chapter of It’s On Us achieved great strides in advocating for sexual assault prevention in it’s first year. However, interest in our chapter dwindled each year after our founding, which was telling of the bigger picture.
Interest in our organization always peaked after any headline about sexual violence or alleged drugging in local bars. People were rightfully upset. But those headlines continued to return.
The bigger picture told us college students care about sexual violence, but we fail to push policy changes that stop history from repeating.
That’s precisely why it’s on us.
When former MU student Tori Schafer graduated in 2019 and retired from her role as director of our chapter, she left a purpose for our organization. We had members, we held momentum — and most importantly — we were change agents. But, when passing the torch, new leaders used this reputation to skate by without doing the work. It was all a performance.
When I joined our chapter’s executive board as the events coordinator, I sought to prevent sexual assault through education. These meetings brought in 30 people every week, discussing a variety of issues, like “Trauma Responses to IPV” and “How to Engage Men in the Fight”. While these discussions sparked interest in the culture of select groups on campus, we failed to take actions to change the policies and resources at MU that feed the issue of sexual assault on our campus.
At MU one in four women, one in ten men, and nearly one in four transgender and non-binary individuals have been assaulted.
In the first week of October, 2021, there were 13 reported cases of drinks being spiked with date rape drugs at local bars including during fraternity events. When these reports were brought to local TV stations, our campus became outraged. Immediately following the news, one student held a protests with 400 people and as a result, It’s On Us meeting attendance spiked.
For a moment, our campus was motivated.
From October to November of 2021, we organized to stop sexual assault. Then, finals came and students left campus for winter break, which lasted over a month.
When school started back up, the story had died down, the passion was gone, and it was as if none of it ever happened. We forget these statistics when they aren’t being mentioned in the media. We forget that our best friends, strangers next to us in class, and the people in our organizations are suffering silently from being assaulted. However, while their pain isn’t loud, sexual assault on MU’s campus isn’t something tackling the student body quietly.
However, when it cycled back through with the passing of a student on campus, groups of people reached out saying that they stood with us and wanted to join the fight. MSA candidates reached out to It’s On Us, asking to come to our meetings to present their platforms, as sexual assault prevention was a key issue in their campaign. It was great these individuals wanted to use their platform to make a difference. However, neither slate had ever participated in any event or discussion we hosted prior to their election cycle.
It’s easy to stand up and want to fix the problem. It’s empowering to say publicly, “It’s On Us.” When activism is only loud, you don’t feel the pain others go through. But, when you sit down in a room and ask how an institution can make policy changes to eradicate sexual assault, the real work begins.
We have to be willing to feel the pain for a moment and push through that in order to be advocates. We have to be there each week, writing new policies, making new programs, and changing structures in place, even if doing so isn’t loud. We have to always be change agents because even if it’s hard, it’s still on us.
The MU chapter of It’s On Us has a renewed mission. We will take concrete steps to end sexual assault on our campus. This isn’t something that people are loud about right now – and that’s okay. We’re here, we’re passionate, and we’re putting in the work. We haven’t given up.
However, it’s time for us to put our passion into action. In years past, we’ve forgotten that we’re a policy-based organization, and that’s where our focus needs to be. It isn’t enough to simply care about the issue — we want to make our campus a safer place, and prevent sexual assault.
Below is a detailed list of what It’s On Us has been working to accomplish this school year:
We are moving away from educational advocacy and turning into a policy-based organization.
We now have a seat on the Sexual Assault Working Group under the Vice Provost of Student Affairs to give our policies the platform needed for administrative workshop and implementation.
Currently, we are working with the university’s international programs office to review current trainings provided by the program for students and advisors surrounding intimate partner violence, and ensuring students are aware of who to contact if they experience sexual violence while away from campus.
Ahead of the 2024 Session of the Missouri State Legislature, we will work with campus partners to lobby for a Speaker Circuit that will allocate $5,000 to each public university to bring in a content expert to speak on sexual assault prevention on college campuses.
This year, IOU developed a 10-step resiliency program for survivors of sexual assault who must take classes with the individuals who assaulted them.
We created a presentation for MU student organizations to train executive boards to respond to sexual assault claims within their organization.
We will be holding our annual Week of Action April 17-21 for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
This isn’t just an issue on our campus. College students across the country need to actively engage in this fight. For both students and their parents, it’s necessary to ask: what can I do? It isn’t enough to repost something on Instagram, it isn’t enough to just say “it’s on us”. You have to put that commitment into action so that rather than protesting sexual assault on campus, we can prevent in the first place. It’s On Us is here doing the work, the only question left, is will you join us?