For the past year, the combined efforts of counseling services and residence life have brought 3D Thursdays to Shepherd University every week like clockwork. Their final large-scale event will be the 3D Dash 5k, but the Stand Up, Don’t Stand By campaign won’t be stopping for the summer.
Jessica Oswald, one of the leaders of the program along with Ashley Dorsey, said that the campaign has raised student knowledge and awareness to the point where most students questioned can recite the 3 Ds (direct, distract, and delegate) on the spot.
“I feel we are beginning to change the culture on campus and create an expectation that we are all responsible for helping to protect each other,” said Rhonda Jackson, Shepherd counselor and founder of the 3D Thursday campaign.
Neither Jackson nor Oswald was able to confirm if the campaign has directly prevented any assaults or acts of interpersonal violence at Shepherd.
“We have had fewer reported incidents of sexual assaults and I would like to think that the 3D Thursday campaign is part of the reason,” Jackson said. “However, it is hard to know, as sexual assaults are highly underreported.”
Oswald said that she has heard stories from different students about times when they have used one of the bystander intervention techniques or seen someone else do so. “There is something in my heart of hearts that tells me we have helped in some way,” she said.
Communications major Wayne Snow said that he agrees with everything that the 3D Thursday campaign has done this year, but is not sure about what they can do to improve. “Sexual assault has always been a big issue on college campuses so I appreciate what they are doing,” he said.
To better gauge the effectiveness of the program, Oswald and Jackson plan on creating an assessment tool over the summer. Most likely using a survey form, Oswald wants to find out from the students what the campaign is doing right and what needs to be improved on.
Oswald said the leaders of the 3D Thursdays plan on updating and editing the interpersonal violence page on the student affairs website and to further increase their social media presence, as that has been a big part of this year’s efforts.
As far as what the individual programs will be each week next year, Oswald said that will be another part of the Stand Up campaign’s tasks this summer. No matter what is decided, students at Shepherd should expect to see green every Thursday when they return in the fall.