Greeks CARE and It’s On Us at Penn State partnered with the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity, to host a sexual assault and awareness presentation Wednesday night in Thomas 118.
Greeks CARE President Jacob Frank and It’s On Us President Sabrina Delgado spoke to attendees for National Sexual Assault Awareness month.
Greeks CARE is a six-week program that educates members of fraternity and sorority life on sexual violence prevention and healthy relationships, Frank said.
Frank (senior-education and public policy) said 33.4% of undergraduate women and 9.9% of undergraduate men have experienced sexual violence in some form.
“Currently, we’re waiting for the most recent climate survey to come out — they have suggested that that number increased,” Frank said. “So this is a prevalent issue on our campus. It’s something that needs to be acknowledged.”
Frank led an interactive activity where attendees were given a scenario and participants moved toward sides of the room to identify if the situation was “harmless, disrespectful or sexual misconduct.”
Frank also covered practices such as the “three D’s” — distract, delegate and direct, which Frank said are used when observing something happening to others that doesn’t look right.
It’s On Us is an organization focused on preventing sexual violence on campus, supporting survivors and raising awareness, Delgado (senior-health policy administration) said.
“We really want to make sure that all students feel heard and seen and supported,” Delgado said. “Our whole goal is to build the community so that we feel supported — survivors feel supported — if they experienced interpersonal violence, and especially be a support system for underrepresented students at Penn State.”
Delgado spoke about the three workshops It’s On Us runs and pulled an activity from a workshop, which she said was for the attendees to identify their boundaries.
Attiliah Garcia, a member of the Sigma Lambda Gamma sorority, said it was “helpful to get informed” on the topics.
“I really enjoyed the whole event,” Garcia (junior-criminology) said. “You never know if it can happen to your friend or if it can happen to you. So, having the resources to know the difference between stuff and also be able to help people is important.”
Agha Jahangir, president of Sigma Lambda Beta, said the event was to address issues on campus, as well as “the stereotypes that exist around greek life.”
“It is a very prevalent thing, and it’s important that we talk about it and have these conversations so that we’re well equipped,” Jahangir (junior-economics) said. “I really left feeling confident that my peers and my fellow brothers in my organization are all on the same page — that when we see something, we’ll say something.”
