New student organization works to stop sexual assault on campus

The anonymous weekly PSU text alerts about sexual assaults on campus can only do so much to prevent the atrocities that seem to infect this campus every week.

However, there are two students who want to change the image and conversation of sexual assault on our campus.

Kaylee Bangs and Ellis Stump started a new student organization, Open The Box, to raise awareness about how sexual assaults are handled on college campuses.

The idea for the organization started from a class project in their rhetoric class. Kaylee and Ellis were given an assignment to do a public advocacy campaign about an issue.

They thought of their idea with a blog post Ellis had written about a personal experience where her friend was drugged and taken advantage of at a party.

After the incident they went to Mount Nittany Medical Center to report the incident and Ellis learned about how sexual assaults are handled at Penn State.

After a sexual assault, the victim has to go to Mount Nittany Health Center where they are given two options.

According to Ellis, they can choose to go through a four to six hour process to report their case and get screened or they can receive a quick physical examination, a Plan B pill and an STD shot.

Ellis wants to change this process with Open The Box.

She said: “Our main goal is to improve how sexual assault is handled.”

Currently Penn State offers resources for students to go to if they need help. This includes the Center for Women Students, the Office of Student Conduct and Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).

The Center for Women Students provides a place where students can talk about sexual assault its free and confidential.

The students are never pressured to report anything to the police, said Jennifer Pencek, a program coordinator for the Center for Women’s Students.

This center then works with the university to do campus programs.

Jennifer said: “We are a big advocate for sexual assault support services.”

As a new student organization Open The Box wants to help victims “feel empowered.”

Kaylee said they don’t want people to “keep silent about this issue.”

Jennifer told The Tab: “It’s really important that people do talk about sexual assault.”

According to her, groups can hold discussions and events to get the conversation started. Students can attend different events and educate themselves on the topic.

Open the Box wants to hold open discussion groups where students can talk about sexual assaults on campus.

At a recent club meeting they held a test discussion and Ellis said that it was nice to hear everyone open up about the issue.

She wants these discussions to have “free open attitudes with no judgement.”

Another main goal for Open The Box is to make “rape kits” more accessible to Penn State students.

A rape kit includes a sexual incident report, along with swabs and envelopes to collect the evidence.

Currently, when a student reports an assault they have to go through a several hour process to report the assault after the incident happens. During this process, they undergo a background check to look at their mental and physical state. Afterwards the medical service has the victim talk to a women’s rights professor and the police.

“We want to improve the process of reporting sexual assaults,” said Kaylee.

Open the Box wants to make rape kits free for Penn State students. Once they accomplish this goal they would like to promote this campaign to other campuses where rape kits aren’t readily available.

Open the Box also wants to have open seminars about the issue and they are launching a promotional video about all of the ways to report sexual assaults on campus.

Eventually the student organization would like to expand to other campuses to make more chapters and help other campuses launch a similar project. So hopefully with an open dialogue and more awareness those PSU text alerts about sexual assaults on campus will grow to be a thing of the past.