Promoting a safe environment and providing survivor-centered education on campus is crucial for students to feel respected and like they belong. On college campuses, sexual and intimate partner violence disproportionately impacts students. This highlights the responsibility of everyone on campus to be involved in prevention efforts such as how to intervene as a bystander, how to recognize a problematic situation, supporting those who have experienced harm, and as small as calling out a harmful joke. Violence prevention education is necessary for creating a campus culture where individuals feel safe, know their resources, and support survivors.
Students Against Violence (SAV) is a peer education program of Health Promotion Services and was founded as Men Against Violence in 1997 before being rebranded as Students Against Violence in 2020. This student-led program focuses on violence prevention through education with the mission of promoting the importance of healthy relationships, respecting bodily autonomy, boundaries and healthy conflict resolution.
SAV utilizes interactive, creative programming in weekly meetings and events to engage students and encourage them to get involved with violence-prevention efforts on campus and in their community. SAV’s peer educators lead weekly meetings covering topics including supporting survivors, defining healthy relationships, bystander intervention and understanding and recognizing stalking. In these meetings, students are encouraged to engage in discussions about these topics and participate in activities such as scenarios, myth versus fact and zine making. Every semester, SAV hosts tabling, events, and displays that encourage student involvement in violence prevention. Because violence prevention is a collaborative effort, SAV partners with campus and community resources such as their sibling program Healthy Cats, the Counseling Center, University Health Services and the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center, and Bluebird’s Hope.
SAV hosts many of their annual events during Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month in April. The goal of these events is to show support and solidarity to survivors by highlighting their experiences and connecting students to campus and community resources. Some of the events that SAV hosts in April include a Denim Day tabling and displays across campus, Consent Bingo & Pizza Party and Take Back the Night. Take Back the Night is a community event that highlights the stories of survivors by offering a safe and respectful space for them to share their experiences.
When students, faculty, and staff engage with these events and information, it helps create a campus community that supports survivors and empowers individuals to stand up for others.
For support on campus and in the community please visit TXST’s Sexual and Dating Violence Resources webpage.
