An interactive display, What Were You Wearing, in the King Library through the end of October is helping bring awareness to campus about sexual assault. The exhibit features a QR code that links to an online form where individuals can anonymously submit their stories of surviving sexual assault.
When first-hand accounts are submitted, Interim Title IX Coordinator Morgan Cullan reviews them, prints the statements, and displays them in the exhibit along with clothes that match the description of what survivors said they were wearing when assaulted.
Students Haylee Payton of Papillion, Neb., and Kamryn Kozisek of Kaycee, Wyo., both Resident Advisors in the residence halls, said when they first heard Cullan present to housing staff about the issue, they knew they wanted to increase awareness campuswide. So, they volunteered to work together with Cullan to design and construct the display. The group spent about six weeks planning and preparing the exhibit that opened Sept. 16 and will close Oct. 31.
The team borrowed outfits from the Eagle Exchange, a room of clothes for students donated from the community and the campus, based on descriptions submitted by survivors. All stories posted on the third floor of the King Library are submitted from CSC students, according to Cullan. Statistics from survivor websites are also part of the installation.
Cullan said the inspiration for the exhibit came from the first What Were You Wearing survivor clothing display at the University of Arkansas in 2014. The project’s intent was advocacy for survivors. The designers of that exhibit, Dr. Mary Wyandt-Hiebert and Jen Brockman, were motivated by the 2005 poem, What I Was Wearing, by Dr. Mary Simmerling. In a flyer at the CSC exhibit, six other similar art installations are listed from 1999 through 2016.
The CSC exhibit sparked the idea for a September 2023 display at the Carnegie Arts Center in Alliance. It will feature stories from survivors from around western Nebraska, according to Doves Client Advocate Rachelle Sutton-Corbett. She has presented two programs in a series of six about healthy relationships and related topics at CSC.
Remaining DOVES programs in the Student Center from 6 to 7 p.m.:
Nov. 7: Sexual and Dating Violence
Nov. 15: Sexual Harassment
Dec. 5: Consent
Jan. 17, 2023: Bystander Intervention
Original source can be found here.
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