Think About It

Posted by Nicholas Beckman in Campus

On Monday, Sept 8, SFUAD students were sent an email from Student Life detailing a new required online course called Think About It, which “will examine the interconnected issues of hooking up, substance abuse, sexual violence, and healthy relationships through a variety of interactive, realistic scenarios and guided self-reflection.”

Think About It is a “A Title IX and Campus SaVE Act education program” that educates students on various campus issues regarding sexual assault prevention/education and substance abuse awareness  The class is in response to federal mandates issued to campuses across the nation to meet standards brought about by the Jeanne Clery Act and SaVE Act.

“I hope it’s not coming across as boring,” says John Rodriguez, director of Campus and Residential Life. Rodriguez and Laura Nunnelly, senior director of Student Life, have spearheaded the program.

According to the email, students are required to complete part one of the course by Oct. 8,  one week after the school’s Oct. 1 Annual Security Report (ASR) deadline, which requires the school to report three calendar years of campus crime statistics.

“Over the last few years, there’s been an increase in sexual violence crimes on campus so there’s a lot of concern, at the high level, of reporting and reporting structure and the educational structure for students on campus,” Nunnelly says.

As for the previous programs and resources to address these issues, Rodriguez notes that the school has “always had a reporting structure and we’ve had programming around alcohol awareness and I believe that alcohol awareness program talks about consent, but nothing as formal [as Think About It],” Rodriguez says.

Nunnelly first saw the Think About It campaign at an administrative leadership conference and upon her return to SFUAD discussed the program with Rodriguez.

“We felt like this was the best thing that we could do as a campus to meet the requirements for the Clery Act and continually provide educational opportunities for students,” Nunnelly explains. In addition to Think About It part one, Rodriguez and Nunnelly spoke extensively about the future initiatives being rolled out for upcoming semesters regarding campus safety and information about crime reporting for students and administration. Resident Assistants were briefed about the new procedures, but did not receive training that complemented the Think About It program.

“I think the two and a half hours kind of scares people off,” Rodriguez says. The course itself is an interactive multimedia program that is separated into different parts and with an easily accessible menu and resources tab. It allows the user to pause and continue at any point during the course.