Sexual assault is a big issue on most college campuses, and it isn’t always something students feel comfortable talking about with authority. Thanks to people like Meghan Jonikas, who are standing up against sexual assault and giving us Lions resources in sexual assault prevention, we can learn how easy it is to make a difference. Meghan is a senior Delta Gamma Health and Human Sciences major with a pre-med emphasis. You may recognize her from the LMU CARES posters you’ve seen hanging in the library bathrooms and the hallways throughout Malone. We had a chance to sit down with Meghan (which is rare because she’s so busy!), and talk with her about LMU CARES.
Can you tell us a little bit about LMU CARES?
LMU CARES stands for Campus Awareness Resources Education Services. It started last year and this year came out with a completely new sexual assault prevention campaign. This campaign is the first of its kind in that it is angled in a more positive and aspirational way to get people to step up and be a better people. It also takes LMU and Jesuit ideals in addition to LMU students to make it really LMU centered and more relatable. The campaign includes Code Certified training, posters, videos, and much more. What I love about it is how it is really our whole campus stepping up and taking a stand against an issue that can easily get overlooked and pushed down.
How did you become involved and what is your involvement?
I got involved about a year ago, when I had the idea to bring the Clothesline project to our campus. I had heard about it in one of my classes and thought it was a great idea. I have seen victims of sexual assault feel like they have no voice and that everyone was against them, and the Clothesline project gives them a chance to share their stories, join together with other victims, and raise awareness about assault. I hope to continue my involvement with the campaign and the RTC after I graduate by working with the RTC to revamp their documents/pamphlets and to work with them to go to other schools and give advice from my experience as a student helping create a campaign.
What is the Clothesline project?
The Clothesline project is where victims of any different form of assault (sexual, domestic, parents, etc) can decorate shirts to say whatever they want. The shirts often tell these brave victims’ stories about domestic abuse and violence. The shirts are hung from the palm trees outside St. Rob’s so anyone walking by can read and see them. We pair with the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center (SM RTC), have counselors at the clothesline and show all the different resources available to victims, friends, or anyone who wants to get involved. We actually had a girl who was on a campus tour come up during the clothesline project and ask if she could make a shirt. She ended up making one of the most moving shirts so seeing things like that really motivated me to try to be as involved as possible. I was asked to be on a student panel over the summer where they presented their ideas for the LMU CARES campaign to the Santa Monica Rape Treatment Center. Our campaign received so much support and praise that we will be presenting it to other Southern California schools as well, which is really exciting!
Why is LMU CARES important?
LMU CARES is important because sexual assault is a huge issue on college campuses that so many people either do not know about or don’t feel comfortable talking about. A lot of the information is so simple, but if you never hear it you won’t be able to step in when something is wrong, be able to really help a friend, or know if you have consent or not. It is super important that our whole campus is getting involved too. When you see so many people showing they care, it can make the topic less scary and uncomfortable.
What does it hope to change about the student body?
It has been crazy how fast it has made an impact on our campus. Besides everyone sending me snapchats of my face on the posters everyday, I have really seen it already make an impact. Throughout the entirety of last year we had about 15 sexual misconduct instances reported on LMU campus, and this year we have already had 20 instances reported. While our ultimate goal is for sexual assault on campus to be eliminated, we are happy to know that students feel more comfortable coming forward with their experiences.
We hope the number of students who come forward to tell their stories increases as people become more aware but we also hope that the number decreases to reflect students stepping in to help stop sexual assault.
There has also been so much positive feedback from students saying how impactful it has been, how they didn’t know about the resources available, and how it has got them to think about sexual assault and prevention in a different way than before. One girl even told us about how she was at a party and saw something that did not look right and was nervous to say anything, but she remembered what she had learned in her Code Certified training. Her training motivated her to step in and stop the situation from going any further. That’s the kind of thing we really want – the campaign sticking in peoples’ minds and giving them that little extra boost they need to intervene or have it linger in their head reminding them that victim blaming is never okay.
Here are some additional links to learning about LMU CARES, what you can do to prevent sexual assault, and how to get involved!
http://studentaffairs.lmu.edu/lmucares/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGmqQw6oTm4