“Yield Campaign” to Launch, Aims to Improve Bentley Safety and Awareness

While not the most fun topic to consider, safety and security should always be on our minds, especially as students. Bentley seems to be a safe environment, particularly as a small campus in the suburbs. This can lead to the community developing a complacent mindset. However, sexual assault, rape, domestic violence, and related incidents can – and do – occur even in the most idyllic of environments, making it of the utmost importance to keep our senses heightened constantly.
 
To help members of the Bentley community keep themselves and friends safe, members of the campus community, including some organizations, have worked towards awareness and safety campaigns.
 
Last year, NERV (Now End Relationship Violence) completed a number of initiatives, including the successful White Ribbon Campaign in collaboration with the Awareness and Action Committee of the Bentley Women’s Center. The Bentley Consent Day Committee also works every year, with a focus on sexual relationships, to remind students to stay aware of safety concerns through fun activities.
 
Continuing this, the Awareness and Action Committee of the Bentley Women’s Center will lead a new campaign this year.
 
Late in the fall semester, the Yield Campaign will kick off with an event on relationships of all kinds (romantic, professional, friendship, etc.). The initial event will include a workshop on what constitutes healthy relationships, called Getting Real about Relationships, which is put on by the Center for Counseling and Student Development’s Peer Educators.

 
Complementing this will be a discussion on college and professional relationships as well as signs of unhealthy relationships. An important aspect of this, as emphasized throughout the campaign, is knowing the warning signs of and how to safely approach unhealthy and destructive relationships.
 
To accomplish this, the Yield Campaign will post flyers around campus showing different aspects of relationships correlated with whether they are healthy, cautionary signs, and danger warnings of relationships both for yourself or your friends.
 
For example:

• If your friend and his or her significant other study together often, that is likely to be a sign of a healthy relationship.
• If your friend calls to check on your location constantly, that is probably a sign of an unhealthy relationship.
• If your significant other demands your login information to check your email, messages, and other online activity, that is likely an unhealthy relationship.

 
Furthermore, these flyers will include QR codes that will send viewers to information regarding relationships, where to go on campus, a quiz, and more. This will allow users to gain a greater amount of information without having to do so in public.
 
The campaign will include work with other organizations in order to put on events and keep campus safe. By combining the flyers, online work, and events, the Awareness and Action Committee hopes to improve the campus environment in regards to safety and awareness of sexual assault, relationship violence, abuse, and rape. Keep your eyes out for the flyers around campus, attend the events, and definitely participate in the interactive online campaign. Just because this is about a serious and often uncomfortable topic does not mean that a community effort to discuss and decrease it cannot be both successful and fun.
 
If you are interested in working on the Yield Campaign or other on campus efforts, please contact the Awareness and Action Committee Chair Lisa Ann Landry at landry_lisa@bentley.edu.
 
If you are concerned about yourself or a friend, or simply want more information on the matter, please call or visit the Center for Counseling and Student Development (which is confidential under rules of counseling ethics and law) by calling (781)891-2274 or visiting them in LaCava 166.