Meet the student behind the ‘NO MORE’ campaign at Rutgers

Jake Comito, a senior here at Rutgers, has spearheaded a remarkable campaign committed to ending domestic violence and sexual assault. NO MORE is a globally recognized campaign, and the members make it very clear that the NO MORE symbol isn’t owned by anyone, making it available for people around the world to use for the sake of ending these issues.

Jake Comito wanted to ensure that this NO MORE would have a place at Rutgers. We sat down with Mr. Comito to get a little more information about the program.

How did the “No More” campaign at Rutgers come about?

The Rutgers NO MORE campaign began almost accidentally. I hosted a Residence Life Program in October last year that allowed students to openly discuss sexual violence with other students. I took pictures of the attendees in front of foam core poster boards, edited the pictures to resemble the national campaign’s PSA photos, and uploaded those photos onto Facebook under the hashtag #RUSaysNOMORE. The pictures and the conversations were immediately impactful – there were over 1,000 Facebook mentions within a week and there were many students asking me and my two friends to speak to their organizations. From there, we took off. 

Did you immediately find other students who were interested in getting involved?

Our initial support was amazing. Students and faculty members were not only interested in working with us, but entire University departments and organizations were willing to help us spread our message and to have these conversations with us. We grew exponentially within the first months by taking hundreds of pictures, educating people about our campus-specific sexual violence statistics and connecting with school leaders.

Considering how big Rutgers is, what was your strategy to spread the word about the campaign?

The name and the pictures went viral by meeting with people we already knew, meeting new people and then meeting the people that the new people knew. For example, I would host an event with a fellow Resident Assistant. I would speak at that event and then meet new people who were not only interested in our cause but willing to bring our cause to another group that they were part of. And then, I would go to that person’s organization and so on. It was easy because our student body was more than willing to talk about sexual violence.

Is Rutgers NO MORE an official organization connected to university?

We were a campaign last year, but now we are an official student organization. We are also allies to VPVA, we are contributors to the Department of Student Affairs’ End Sexual Violence campaign and we are the first-ever student-run organization affiliated to the national NO MORE campaign.

How far has the movement come from conception and where do you see the campaign going in the future?

This campaign has grown into an entity solidified into Rutgers history and culture. We currently have ten executive board members, more than 100 staff members, and upwards of 1,300 followers. We have national ties and state-wide influence. From here, we will continue to grow and to have conversations until there is NO MORE sexual violence on-campus and until rape culture and victim shaming is only a past memory.

Do you have any events coming up that you want people to know about?

We have events every week, sometimes every day. Our biggest week is upcoming in March and we will have a lot of exciting University-wide activities going on then. For now, we encourage everyone who is interested in our cause to follow our Facebook page, Rutgers NO MORE, or to email [email protected] to learn more about our speaking opportunities.