Corina Tapscott, President
Kat Hofland, Vice President of Services
Ryan Boyd, Vice President of Policy
Dear ASU Downtown student body,
On Thursday, Undergraduate Student Government Downtown participated in a social media campaign spreading awareness for sexual violence prevention with the White House’s initiative “It’s On Us.” We want to ensure you recognize our strong commitment to providing you with a safe, violence-free environment during your time at ASU.
While statistics show that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men will face sexual violence in their time at a university, we want to be clear that we are making every effort to ensure that those statistics do not stand true here at ASU. We recognize that sexual violence is a very serious crime that affects not only the victim but also the community as a whole.
USGD is here to support every student and provide them with an excellent experience, ensuring that each student has access to the opportunities that they deserve. Sexual violence has no place in a community with that focus.
Sexual violence is an issue that affects diverse populations in many different ways. We recognize that people of different genders, different racial and ethnic backgrounds, people from the LGBTQIA community, people with disabilities and people who are diverse in a plethora of other ways experience the damaging effects of sexual violence uniquely. We believe that each community deserves justice and will continue in our efforts to advocate for each and every one of these groups.
We want you to know that we will always advocate for victims’ rights. We are working to instill in our staff and our community the importance of language on topics such as sexual violence, where the victim is never blamed for the crimes perpetrated against them and an issue with such gravity is never taken lightly or made into a joke.
We are committed to preventative techniques over reactionary behaviors, meaning that we believe in the power of promoting a perpetrator’s responsibility to control their behavior over a victim’s responsibility to protect their self. Under no circumstances should a person feel that they had a hand in their own sexual assault — the onus is on the perpetrator and only the perpetrator. We will conduct our prevention efforts as such.
We are working on several different initiatives this year to boost ASU Downtown’s holistic wellness efforts, including sexual violence prevention. We are committed to working with the student organizations that already do great work in this area, such as DPC Aware and Students for Consent.
In addition, our entire staff is participating in the Sun Devil Support Network training, meaning that our staff will be fully equipped to advocate for students who have been sexually assaulted and are in need of resources and peer guidance. We hope that all students can look to USGD as a source of support and empowerment.
As a university-wide initiative, we have began discussions about the creation of a Committee on Sexual Violence Prevention and Education, where ASU’s commitment to be vigilant in its prevention efforts will be institutionalized in order to continue the progress that was made with last year’s Sexual Violence Task Force.
USGD is devoted to the well-being of our students in absolutely every sense. We are proud to serve this community and will advocate for every individual in it. Please join us as we work to raise awareness and educate our community on such a paramount topic. #ItsOnUSGD
For more information, visit sexualviolenceprevention.asu.edu or itsonus.org. For more information on USGD, contact Vice President of Services Kat Hofland at kchofland@gmail.com.
Editor’s note: Corina Tapscott, Kat Hofland and Ryan Boyd are the presidential cabinet of ASU’s Undergraduate Student Government Downtown. Downtown Devil’s business director, who did not participate in the writing or editing of this guest editorial, is currently in talks with USGD over future advertising.
