© 2024 University of Missouri - KBIA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

MU students stand against violence

Andrew Hebert
/
KBIA

Despite the misting rain, some dedicated tigers stood clad in green on Lowry Mall Thursday to raise awareness for their cause. The Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center hosted the Green Dot Mizzou Day, a day constituted to the education and prevention of violence in our communities. Graduate Assistant at RSVP, Tim Maness, says that raising awareness is a team effort.

"One of the ways we can raise awareness towards violence prevention is by doing little things. One of our philosophies is no one has to do everything, but everyone had to do something. If everyone were to just do these little actions, these little behaviors, our community at large would be more educated and would be more prone to or be intolerant to violence," Maness said.

The RSVP Center uses their creative "dot system" to help students and community members interact and engage in the prevention process. The "dot system" works by assigning either a red or a green dot to a situation. A "red dot" indicates on a map where a particular act of sexual violence or harassment occurred. A "green dot" conversely indicates on a map where a particular act of sexual violence or harassment was prevented.

Members of the RSVP Center are not the only people on MU's campus concerned with the education and prevention of sexual violence.

The MU Equity Office has also been working to combat violence by using Title IX as a guideline. Title IX states that "[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

By enforcing Title IX and educating students to "green dot" situations, MU hopes to drastically reduce the number of sexual violence or harassment incidents.