- April 24, 2012
- 11:26 am
- Steve Christensen
Area universities encourage you to wear black on 4/25
Seven Chicago-area universities have partnered with the Chicagoland Consortium for Safety on College Campuses (CCSCC) to inform their communities about Sexual Assault Awareness Month and the importance of consent for sexual activity. On Wednesday, April 25, the CCSCC schools invite students, staff, faculty, and the community to wear black clothing, along with a sticker that the various campus groups will provide saying “Consent is Hot. Assault is Not. Ask First.” The CCSCC institutions include DePaul University, Dominican University, Loyola University Chicago, North Park University, Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, and University of Illinois at Chicago.
Sexual assault is the most common violent crime that occurs on American college campuses today, and as many as one in four women will experience an attempted or completed assault during her time in college. Many campuses are working to change these statistics and the formation of CCSCC is one example of how.
The mission of the CCSCC is to enhance Chicagoland universities’ ability to respond to and prevent dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault through collaboration and sharing of resources and best practices.
“Sexual assault is a reality on college campuses and it’s important for us to talk about it, educate students about it, work hard to prevent it, and show our students how much we care,” says Stephanie Atella, health educator at Loyola’s Wellness Center. “April 25 is a city-wide day of recognition of sexual assault and consent and it allows us to demonstrate our strong, unified commitment to making our campuses safer.”
