No More, I say

By Shirleena Baggett |Staff Writer|

Students across the campus are in an uproar over the requirement to take the “End Sexual Violence” training.

Ninety-nine percent of the 40 classmates I conversed with about this topic would have preferred to spend their time studying or eating than taking the course.

The program was designed to be interactive in hopes to bring knowledge to the participants, preventing sexual assault and domestic violence on college campuses.

It also meets the Campus Save Act and Title IX mandates for federally funded schools, according to not-anymore.com.

“We have enough to do, especially as graduate students,” said student Richard Contreras.

CSUSB requires students annually to either choose the online option “Not Anymore” or attend an in-person Bystander Intervention workshop.

I was bombarded with daily emails as a reminder to get it done before the April 29 deadline, and like most of my Coyote family, I wanted to know the urgency for completion and the threat to put a hold on fall registration if not done.

I understand that common knowledge is not always common, and everyone has their own interpretations of what sexual violations are.

The truth is, sexual assaults in colleges do exist; one in five women and one in 16 men will experience it and more than 90 percent of sex crimes go unreported, according to National Sexual Violence Center.

“It’s a good idea but it shouldn’t be a hold on student accounts and shouldn’t be more than once,” said student Tiera Click.

“There should be an incentive,” added Click.

I definitely agree and believe that sexual prevention should be taught at the college level, so that everyone understands the school’s expectations.

What I do not agree with is the manner in which it is implemented.

Some students believe that assigning the program is just the school’s way of releasing liability if an attack were to occur, and more importantly, just doing it to stay funded.

And I can see why.

I interviewed students who took the course online and they admitted to not even paying attention: pressing the skip button, playing video games, talking on the phone, finishing other homework and still received credit for completing it.

What good does that do?

Coyotes that wanted to take the in-person workshop complained about the schedule availability and the many unforeseen cancellations due to low attendance.

A student said that leaving the in-face workshop made him feel like a “bad guy,” and believed the speaker to be one-sided and biased.

There were a variety of workshops offered to enhance the interest of students, but what lacked was the inclusion of uniform definitions of sexual assault that every student needs to know.

Here is the thing: if the adminsitration is going to enforce something, and want us to believe in its importance; it should be done right by holding students accountable and making sure that we are all receiving the same information.

If universities want to impose themselves on our personal lives for an hour every year, at least make it worth our while.