Today ASWSU in conjunction with the Greek community and other campus organizations will launch an awareness campaign for sexual assault.

The campaign, “It’s On Cougs”, is inspired by the Obama administrations’ “It’s On Us” initiative.

“We decided we would follow that campaign and make it personal on our campus,” said LaKecia Farmer, ASWSU vice president.

This Saturday, a student-led dialogue “Talk to Us”, will feature workshops with Green Dot and Alternatives to Violence on the Palouse. The workshops will include discussions on how to navigate life as a sexual assault victim and men’s dialogue on consent.

“It’s time for students to come together and be supported,” said Jami Harrison, assistant director for the Center for Fraternity and Sorority Life.

Harrison along with Brian Shuffield, director of Student Involvement, assisted with the logistics to launch the campaign.

“The students have really driven the content,” Harrison said.

Shuffield said Saturday will be more about empowerment than awareness; to give students tools they can utilize in the future.

Harrison noted that she is hoping for an engaging turnout for Saturday.

“I would really like to see students tackle the issue because it is a sensitive issue,” she said. “I really see it as a day to empower students.”

Over the summer, WSU hosted a PAC-12 summit during which student leaders from their campuses discussed topics in which they could campaign for throughout the conference.

“We decided on one topic; preventing and discussing on sexual violence,” Farmer said. “It was something that we really wanted to address together.”

ASWSU will be tabling today on the Glenn Terrell Mall to educate and answer any questions students might have on how to prevent and identify sexual assault.

They will also be putting up posters around campus with statements and statistics to engage students.

During the past year, sexual assault and rape have been a prevalent topic of discussion on college campuses across the nation. One of the biggest issues being how schools can be better held accountable for how they handle the cases.

“This impacts all students,” said Farmer. “You’re gonna have someone who is a survivor or knows a survivor.”

This semester there have been five reports of rape and seven reports of sexual assault, Pullman Police Chief Gary Jenkins said during last Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

“One is too many for us, we want to make sure every student is supported by us,” Farmer said. “They aren’t going to have a good education if there is sexual violence.”

Students and Registered Student Organizations can take the pledge against sexual assault at Studentinvolvement.orgsync.com/org/aswsu/ItsOnCougs, where a calendar of events for the campaign is also provided.