Students Stopping Rape

Exciting Internships for the 2006-2007 School Year!

Paid internships for the 2006-07 school year are now available for those dedicated to gender equality and a community free of sexual violence.

Requirements for the internships include: ability to work from a feminist perspective, commitment to 40-60 hours a quarter and weekly meetings, and attending Fall quarter training. Previous interns have found their experiences to be enriching and a positive influence on their everyday lives. Positions that are available are:

• Media Outreach
• Residence Halls Programmer
• Webmaster
• Outreach to Student Groups of Color
• Men Against Rape Outreach
• Students Stopping Rape Coordinator
• Men Against Rape Coordinator

You can view the applications through the following links (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader):

• RPEP Internship Announcement - includes descriptions of each position
• SSR Coordinator Information
• Men Against Rape Outreach Intern - new!
• SSR Outreach Intern

You do not have to be a member of SSR to apply, however it is recommended you come to our weekly meetings, Wednesday at 5pm! Everyone is welcome.

Post-”It Affects Me”

First of all great work on It Affects Me. I think I speak for everyone when I say it was a great success! Congratulations and thanks to everyone who helped out with the tabling, handing out shirts, attending events, making goodie bags, setting up and so much more!

We are meeting this week, at 5pm at the Women’s Center. We are going to have a de-briefing session where Sharon will come and talk to us about IAM and where we go from here. It will probably be a shorter meeting, only till about 6, so you can all plan for that.

Once again thanks to everyone and great job on IAM this year! — Katherine

Student Groups Team Up to Stop Sexual Assault

[ View original Daily Nexus article ]

As part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Monday marked the start of the fifth annual It Affects Me campaign, which reminds students of the estimated 300 sexual assaults that take place in the UCSB community every year.

Co-sponsoring the weeklong event is campus organization Students Stopping Rape (SSR), members of which will be wearing their signature blue shirts emblazoned with “It Affects Me” while handing out pamphlets, helping host games such as “Guess the Rapist,” and even putting on a concert later in the week.

SSR Co-Coordinator and third-year communications and sociology major Katie Mahon said sexual assault is a more serious problem at UCSB than police records would suggest, as only about 5 percent of cases are reported. These statistics are similar throughout the country, she said.

“It’s estimated that there are between 300 and 500 cases of sexual assault each year [at UCSB],” she said. “There’s no way of knowing, because the cases don’t get reported to anyone. One in four women nationwide will be sexually assaulted by the time they graduate from college.”

Sexual assault is not limited to rape, Mahon said.

“Sexual assault is walking down [Del Playa Drive] and having someone grab your butt,” she said. “It’s guys catcalling from their balconies.”

As the group’s moniker implies, Mahon said SSR hopes to put a stop to an extremely common and often ignored crime.

“Our goal is to end sexual assault in the community and then the world,” she said. “The idea is that we educate students [and] the Isla Vista population about how sexual assault affects people. Everyone’s affected by it.”

Several other on-campus organizations, such as Men Against Rape and Queer Student Union, are also partaking in the weeklong campaign, Mahon said.

“Our main idea this year was to get other groups involved,” she said. “Last fall we had a meeting, that we invited about 20 groups to, called ‘It Affects Us’; then we invited them all back for this [year].”

The groups will table through Thursday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on the Women’s Center lawn and pass out free T-shirts, pins, pencils and CDs. They will also be accepting donations for the campaign.

The campaign began yesterday with MUJER’s “Women of Juarez” presentation in the Women’s Center library and continues today with a workshop hosted by QSU at 3 p.m. in the Graduate Lounge. Men Against Rape’s “Guess the Rapist” presentation will also be held at 8 tonight in the Anacapa Residence Hall recreation room.

On Wednesday, the MultiCultural Center Theater will screen “NO!: The Rape Documentary” at 6 p.m.

Former Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson will speak in front of the Women’s Center during a rally from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, followed by a Medusa concert on Friday at 9 p.m. in the Hub. All events are free.

“We’re trying to get to the source of the problem,” Mahon said. “Fixing the source will be better than helping the problem after the fact.”

Sexual Assault, Silence Are a One-Two Punch

By Susan Landgraff
[ View original 93106 Newsletter article. ]

‘Sexual assault is part of a sexual violence continuum that includes verbal harassment…’

This week, Students Stopping Rape will sponsor its fifth annual “It Affects Me” campaign as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. A student-led group working with the Women’s Center’s Rape Prevention Education Program, Students Stopping Rape’s goal is to raise awareness about rape and sexual assault.

The campaign is based on the idea that sexual assaults are happening in epidemic proportions, but almost never talked about. There is a high chance that you know, work with, or teach someone who is a survivor of sexual assault. The combination of widespread sexual assault, and silence about it, affects us all.

Many people do not realize how prevalent sexual assault is in our community and in the nation. One out of every four women will experience a sexual assault or an attempted sexual assault perpetrated by a man by the time that she graduates from college, according to surveys done at colleges nationwide by Mary Koss and Bonnie Fisher in 1987 and 2000, respectively.

Of the 50 sexual assaults reported to the UCSB Rape Prevention Education Program every year, 98 percent are perpetrated by someone the survivor thought she could trust. The national surveys tell us that these reported assaults represent about 5 percent of the actual number, mostly due to survivors’ fear of being blamed, ostracized, or not believed. We all have a duty to work toward eliminating sexual assault and the rape culture that perpetuates it.

April 17th through 21st, Students Stopping Rape will be handing out free, bright blue “It Affects Me” t-shirts, and will be asking that staff and faculty wear them. This year, many of the week’s workshops will be co-sponsored with other campus organizations, including Mujer, Queer Student Union, SCORE, INDUS, Womyn’s Commission, CIA, Take Back the Night, and Men Against Rape. There will be a student-led rally on the Women’s Center lawn on Thursday, April 20, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a concert by Medusa in The Hub on Friday, starting at 9 p.m., will end the program.

In addition to attending these events, you can create change on your own by realizing that what you say, as well as what you allow others to say, may have a negative impact on sexual assault survivors and others affected by such assaults. Sexual assault is part of a sexual violence continuum that includes verbal harassment and any type of unwanted sexual contact.

Comments supporting myths about sexual assault, such as “women always lie about it,” “only certain types of people are assaulted,” and “if she hadn’t been wearing that/dancing like that/drinking that she wouldn’t have been raped,” perpetuate the rape culture by blaming the victim of the crime. At the same time, this type of thinking releases a perpetrator, who is usually male, from personal responsibility for his decision to harm another human being.

Most UCSB faculty members and staff supervisors have recently completed sexual harassment training that underscores the role of communication in illegal and demeaning behavior.

For information on the workshops or for resources regarding rape and sexual assault, contact the Women’s Center at x3778. For information about sexual harassment training programs for faculty and staff supervisors, go to [www.sa.ucsb.edu/women%27scenter/sexualharassment/index.asp].

Susan Landgraff is assistant director of the UCSB Rape Prevention Education Program.

5th Annual IAM Educates Students About Stopping Rape

By Carl Barnes
[ View original Daily Nexus article ]

This week, Students Stopping Rape is putting on its 5th annual It Affects Me campaign. As in the past four years, we will be giving out bright blue T-shirts with this slogan emblazoned on it in white. What affects us, you ask? Sexual assault affects all of us, whether directly or indirectly. One in four college-aged women will be subject to sexual assault or attempted sexual assault by the time of graduation. Men and children are also raped and sexually abused. If you have not been assaulted yourself, then the odds are high that you know someone who has been, whether or not they have chosen to disclose this fact to you. Sexual assault is a violation of a very personal and intimate nature, and it can - and often does - impact a person’s future relationships.

IAM is meant to act as a way to raise awareness about rape and sexual assault. We are here, saying that sexual assault affects us all, and so we all have a role to play in bringing it to an end. We have many events planned throughout the week. On Monday, April 17, Mujeres Unidas por Justicia Educaci-n y Revoluci-n (MUJER) will present a workshop in the Women’s Center Library at 4 p.m. titled “Women of Juarez.” At 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Queer Student Union will present a workshop in the Graduate Lounge called Sexual Assault in Queer Communities.” That night at 8, Men Against Rape and C.I.A. are co-sponsoring an event called “Guess the Rapist” in the recreation room of Anacapa Hall. On Wednesday evening, we will be screening “No! The Rape Documentary” at 6 p.m. in the MultiCultural Center in conjunction with the Associated Students Women’s Commission, followed by an open-mic night, also at the MCC, co-sponsored by the Student Commission on Racial Equality. On Thursday we will have our main rally on the Women’s Center lawn from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson will give the keynote address. That evening at 8 the Indian Undergraduate Student Body will present “Yoni Ki Baat,” a South Asian version of “The Vagina Monologues” at the MCC. Finally, on Friday, April 21, we will be having a free concert in the Hub, featuring L.A. hip hop artist Medusa[. The show, co-sponsored by A.S. Program Board and KCSB 91.9 FM, starts at 9 p.m., doors open at 8:30.

We hope that these events will be educational and raise awareness on campus about this problem. All week we will be tabling in front of the Women’s Center giving away T-shirts. In the past we have run out, so come get yours earlier rather than later, and show your support by wearing it as much as possible.

We also want people to have fun. Sexual assault is a heavy and emotionally draining topic, so it is important for everyone to do something about it, while also trying to be positive. We need to keep reminding ourselves why we are doing what we are doing: to make a world with no sexual assault. How sweet that world would be.

Carl Barnes is a graduate student in the Philosophy Dept. and a coordinator for Men Against Rape.

It Affects Me - April 17 - 21, 2006

The 5th Annual It Affects Me is fast approaching! Join us this year in our biggest campaign ever with a week of events that includes performances, an open mic night, a movie, and finishes with a concert featuring the underground rap/hip-hop artist, Medusa!

Show your solidarity by picking up a free “It Affects Me” t-shirt on the Women’s Center lawn beginning Monday, April 17. You may have seen the royal blue shirts we passed out in past year’s campaigns. Their purpose is to facilitate dialogue and awareness about rape, sexual assault, and rape culture. Pick up your shirt and learn more! They go fast.

Free t-shirts, Women’s Center Lawn, 10AM - 2PM, Monday - Thursday