On Nov. 8, the It’s On Us club held an informational session to discuss plans, hear from students and get more people involved.
It’s On Us is a national program created to spread awareness about sexual assault on college campuses. Over 200 college campuses in the United States have their own individual chapters working on events and student awareness to combat sexual assault.
Wilkes had its own chapter prior to Covid, but it later dissolved. This year, students worked to reestablish it. The information session discussed events the club is looking to hold this year, intentions with the chapter and how they hope to get more students involved.
Jaci Bickel, sophomore political science and criminology major, is the club’s president. She talked about how she got involved with the club.
“Dr. Wilczak and I wanted to see the club start off again, and I felt really motivated to start it again since it relates to me personally, and I wanted to create something for students who also related to express their feelings in a healthy way.”
Similarly, another founding member, Emily Roberts, junior criminology and sociology, shared how she got involved.
“I heard about it originally last year through Dr. Wilczak…He said he wanted to start our chapter back up after it died down post Covid, and we had a meeting with Elizabeth Leo about our plans for it. Not much happened last year, but our amazing President Jaci, has some really big plans that I am so excited for.”
Roberts also shared the plans they hoped to see in the future.
“We hope to first and foremost have large turnouts so that we can educate as many people as possible. We are thinking about having events where survivors can use their trauma in a healthy way to help others who are struggling, as well as helping themselves.”
Bickel mentioned she really wants to see a lot of student participation and that since so many students are able to relate to the issues being combated by the club, it’s important that the club is kept alive.
Bickel, Roberts and other members of the club are very excited to get things going again.
“I’m just really excited to see what we can do. Our biggest goal is to make everyone who has a story to tell feel safe and secure to tell it. That way we can give everyone a voice who feels it has been taken away from them,” said Roberts.