Anti-rape posters plastered in bathrooms

Posters encouraging students to "Be a friend, not a bystander" are being plastered across campus bathroom walls this week as part of a campaign to educate students about sexual harassment at Princeton.

The posters, created by SpeakOut, aim to draw attention to the issue of campus rape and contain both national and Princeton-specific information, including details of whom to contact in the event of assault, how to react if assaulted, national statistics regarding assaults and tips to avoid assault on campus.

"We're trying to raise awareness among students," SpeakOut president Sarah Erickson '07 said. "Yes, this is Princeton, and yes this is a great place, but we aren't really in a bubble. It's just good to be thinking about [sexual assault] and to take precautions."

A group of undergraduates, graduate students and administrators started the group last spring to address what they perceive as unhealthy sexual norms on campus. SpeakOut engages in year-round activities to raise awareness, noting that one in four college women is a survivor of rape or attempted rape and that 80 percent of victims know their attackers, according to national statistics, which were included on the posters.

Erickson said the statistics are based on data from more than 6,000 students at 32 U.S. colleges and universities, including several private universities similar in size to Princeton.

In designing the posters, SpeakOut members wanted to make them more durable and permanent than the average flyer. Unlike temporary signs placed in restrooms to advertise events, these posters are laminated to stay up all year.

"We were trying to figure out the best way to spread the most information," Maital Friedman '07 said. "[The bathroom] is something that everybody uses, and putting signs in restrooms reaches such a wide range of students — male, female, faculty, staff and students."

The messages in the men's restrooms differ slightly from those in women's bathrooms and call for male students to "know more, make a difference."

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This bathroom postering campaign is the most recent initiative by SpeakOut to spread awareness about rape.

SpeakOut educated RCAs on sexual assault matters during its week-long training period in the fall and distributed 800 T-shirts in a December event to students, who had to sign pledges stating, "I'm a friend, not a bystander" before receiving their shirts. The group plans to further revamp instruction after approval from Dean of Undergraduate Students Hilary Herbold.

The project was supported by the Women's Center, the residential colleges, the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students and the Office of the Vice President for Campus Life.