Western gets early start on Campus Safety Awareness Month

September marks Western’s Campus Safety Awareness Month campaign (WCSAM). WCSAM is designed to disseminate information and educate the campus community around relevant campus-safety topics.

“This year’s focus is in part due to data we collected last spring during our spring student trainings, particular around awareness of how and where to report sexual harassment,” said Western Title IX administrator Chris Luekenga.

Luekenga and his team got an early start on WCSAM during the week of Orientation with public service announcements promoting the reporting of suspicious activity and behaviors on campus on student-operated KWSB 91.1 FM.

“We will also be focusing on different aspects of the WCSAM campaign during Orientation events, including Parent & Family Orientation and the Life at Western skits,” Luekenga said.

During Week 2 (Aug. 27-31), WCSAM is designed to promote sexual harassment reporting through the “I Report” responsible employee training campaign. Specific “I Report” stickers are placed in the office windows of Western responsible employees, alerting the campus community of where to report sexual harassment.

A “responsible employee” is someone a student or university employee could reasonably believe has the authority to respond to a report of sexual misconduct. Most university employees are classified as “responsible employees.” Responsible employees have a duty to report any type of sexual misconduct, harassment, relationship violence or stalking to the Title IX administrator.

Week 3 (Sept. 3-7) will be focused on the “Take the Challenge: If You See Something, Say Something” exercise. Western’s peer educators will be tabling on Sept. 5 with Take the Challenge available outside Rare Air Café.

Week 4 (Sept. 10-14) is the Active Shooter information week: “RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.” Western director of security services Nathan Kubes will be tabling on Sept. 12 outside Rare Air Café to provide information and take questions.

Week 5 (Sept. 17-21) is reserved for the topic of consent. Western’s peer educators will table outside Rare Air Café to provide information.

The last week of WCSAM, Week 6 (Sept. 24-28) will focus on emergency-notification systems, including Western’s RAVE Alert system. Kubes is scheduled to have a table reserved outside Rare Air Café to provide more information about Rave and the CodeRED emergency notification system.