Last Saturday, a cappella performances, DIY tote bags, letter-writing and other activities gave students the opportunity to promote a culture of consent and learn from peers about bystander intervention to prevent sexual assault. These events were organized as part of the CHECK IT program, which launched its campus-wide initiative on Feb. 28 in Reid Ballroom from 8-10 p.m. The program seeks to educate students on how to challenge sexual assault, dating violence and stalking.
The Welty Health and Counseling Center Staff collaborated with the CHECK IT program to bring the project onto campus, with Assistant Vice President for Wellness Aimée Milne and Prevention Specialist Michelle Shin guiding the initiative.
“The program equips students with the skills and confidence to intervene in moments of harm, practice consent, build healthy relationships and support survivors,” Milne said. “At the heart of CHECK IT is a focus on increasing students’ self-efficacy — the belief that they can take action effectively — which is essential for meaningful behavior change.”
CHECK IT originated in 2014 at Cal Poly Humboldt under the direction of Mary Sue Savage and Paula Arrowsmith-Jones. Since then, the program has partnered with Recognize Violence, Change Culture (RVCC), a national organization, to tailor CHECK IT programs to each individual campus they attend.
The program is tailored to individual campuses and aims to teach intervention tactics through peer educators. The launch team, guided by Prevention Specialist Michelle Shin, was nominated by faculty in the early fall semester. Those who accepted their nomination participated in a retreat in October, where they received training in preparation for the launch party. Four peer educators also joined the launch team in leading workshops, coordinating events and communicating public outreach.
“The student initiative is to make sure that us and you know how to help your peers, because at the end of the day, you interact more with students instead of faculties and higher-ups,” CHECK IT Peer Educator Zizia Da Conceicao Teme said. “It’s very important to be there for each other because we’re a small community.”
CHECK IT also included other student organizations such as Athletes Consent for Education, Whitman Panhellenic Council, Planned Parenthood Generation Action, Schwa and Sirens. Each organization helped run the event by volunteering at booths, bringing in more students to attend and providing engaging activities. The launch also intentionally included sorority and fraternity life.
“We’re including Greek life because social life within Whitman is centered around Greek life parties,” Da Conceicao Teme said. “We don’t want to hide that from students because we’re all college students. We want to make sure fraternities and sororities know this type of initiative and ensure we know how to prevent harm.”
Da Conceicao Teme also pointed out that all students, including those who are not members of sorority or fraternity life, play a role in preventing sexual assault or violence on campus.
“We want to make sure that others are able to intervene in case of harm, regardless of power dynamics,” Da Conceicao Teme said.
For Lyla Lopez, a member of Alpha Phi at Whitman, the event brought a lot of excitement among student leaders.
“I hope it creates excitement around these kinds of topics,” Lopez said. “I hope that people recognize [CHECK IT] and use it for good.”
The launch party was the first step to introducing the CHECK IT curriculum on campus. In the future, Peer Educators plan to continue building campus-wide confidence and response skills to intervene when harm occurs by hosting workshops.
“We encourage student groups, clubs, teams and organizations to sign up together for a workshop so they can learn and practice these skills within their own communities,” Milne said. “Through these collective efforts, we aim to foster a campus culture where students feel empowered and responsible for looking out for one another.”
With workshops and activities from CHECK IT, students transform campus culture into a safe, consenting environment that also pushes for accountability.
