Students Taking Action on Campus: 2005-06 Campus Action Projects

By Andresse St. Rose

What motivates busy college students to add yet another activity to their already full schedules? For those who participated in the AAUW Campus Action Project this past year, it was sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a problem on college campuses across the country, but little is being done to address it. So when the opportunity to participate in this program came along, CAP team members decided to take action.

Last fall, the AAUW Leadership and Training Institute selected 11 colleges and universities to implement a Campus Action Project to address sexual harassment on their campus, as part of the AAUW Building a Harassment-Free Campus initiative. AAUW provided the teams with financial and technical support and each team had to have at least two students since one of the program’s main goals is to support student leadership and training development.

The 11 teams featured a diverse group of students from a variety of academic programs and ethnic and racial backgrounds. These students — both women and men — were all committed to being involved on campus and were also active in student government, academic clubs, honor societies, and other campus groups and organizations.

Several teams chose to examine student experiences and administered the AAUW research survey instrument used for Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment on Campus (AAUW Educational Foundation, 2005) on their campuses. Other teams tried to engage the wider student body in a campus dialogue to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual harassment. The team from the Pennsylvania State University developed a media campaign to raise awareness of sexual harassment on their campus, while the CAP team from Georgia Southern University developed a web-based reporting system to facilitate the reporting of incidents of sexual harassment.

CAP team members also made presentations to classes, designed T-shirts, developed slogans, and underwent training to become peer advisers. Team members were happy to use their communication skills and creativity to spread their messages and also developed new and valuable skills. Charlyn Stanberry, a graduate student at the University of Central Florida, found that making presentations on the research findings to classes helped improve her own understanding of the terminology and concepts of sexual harassment.

While the projects were well received and supported on campus, the student leaders think that student involvement could be better. According to Samantha Weber, a student at the University of North Texas in Denton, when it comes to being involved on campus, "it seems to be the same group of leaders over and over again, but it is getting better."

Students can be more involved in raising awareness of and finding solutions to a number of tough issues on campus. CAP members noted that young women are especially concerned about issues, such as eating disorders and self-esteem. AAUW hopes the CAP programs can be used as a model for future student activism projects.

Read more information about the 2005-06 Campus Action Project teams and AAUW’s Building a Harassment-Free Campus initiative.