Oakland University Student Congress (OUSC) launched their “It’s On Us” campaign at the beginning of the school year.  The goals of the campaign are to raise awareness, educate the Oakland community and provide aid to victims of sexual assault. 

The passing of resolution C.R. 15.03 in January of 2015 allowed for OUSC to create flyers about the resources available for sexual assault victims.  According to Madison Kubinski, OUSC vice president, OUSC hopes to create more flyers in the near future suggesting area specific resources such as the Haven organization in Pontiac. 

OUSC filmed their “It’s On Us Video,” which can be found on OUSC’s YouTube page, as a kick off to the campaign educating students on sexual assault and reinforcing Oakland’s no tolerance policy. 

“Our ‘It’s On Us’ campaign is basically trying to draw on administrator support trying to get our university based resources across, trying to really get the point across that it’s on all of us to stop sexual assault,” Kubinski said. “It’s an issue pertaining to everybody – it’s not a gender specific issue, it’s not a heterosexual problem, it’s an everybody problem. We have to come together and start trying to address it and stop it.”  

In working with the Student Association of Michigan, Kubinski explained that these campaigns will be popping up all over the state shortly, with Oakland being one of the first. 

For those concerned about assaults on campus, Kubsinki suggested, “use your resources.”  These include OUPD, who will assist students to their cars and across campus, the Dean of Students, Graham Health Center for counseling and check-ups, as well as the Companion app which alerts friends when people leave a location on campus and when they arrive.  The Companion app also has a button to call the police and will send a GPS location to them should the phone be dropped or if they press the “I’m Nervous”button. 

OUSC is partnering with Haven and Graham Health Center, and is hoping to build more connections locally to get information out there.  If you or someone you know would like information on campus sexual assault, please visit oakland.edu/oucc/common-concerns/assault or haven-oakland.org.