Students Against Sexual Assault is a new club that aims to raise awareness of and educate students about sexual assault.
Club officer Anally Contreras said club officers hope the club will not only raise awareness but that it will also provide a safe learning environment for students to ask delicate but important questions.
She also talked about how she hopes the club will help people feel more connected to the issue.
“I feel like sometimes we lack a connection with the issue because we think, ‘Oh, that’s not really relevant to me. It’s not relevant because we’re on BYU campus,'” Contreras said. She said that even if someone hasn’t been directly affected by sexual assault, someone close to them probably has.
Though the club offers a safe environment, Club President Naomi Mortensen clarified the role Students Against Sexual Assault plays in helping students.
“(It’s) important that we know it’s not a clinical or support group. But we’re talking about education, and we talk about how to help those around us,” Mortensen said.
She said times need to change and that problems like sexual assault need to be addressed and no longer talked about in hushed tones.
To help bring about these changes, the officers look to the future of the club. Club marketing officer Grant Valentine said it would be cool to create a branch of the club geared toward men. He said that often, only women attend the sexual assault awareness meetings.
“(It would) be just great if there were more men going to these meetings and more men that were vocally, actively opposed to sexual assault and (who) like advocating for consent,” he said.
Valentine said the club plans to hold its first event on Thursday, Oct. 3. The event will feature two to three speakers who will talk about what defines sexual assault, followed by a question and answer session.
