This week, One in Four, an all-male group dedicated to preventing and educating about issues of sexual violence, has begun its first campaign to educate the Penn community through signs on campus.
The group gets its name from the statistic that one in four college women has survived either rape or attempted rape at some point in her life, explained the group’s president, College senior Josh Pollack.
Pollack sat down with The Daily Pennsylvanian to answer a few questions about the group and the campaign.
DP: Why is this a particularly important issue for Penn?
JP: We all know that Penn is full of smart people, but that sometimes clouds the fact that it’s a “work hard, play hard” school. The truth is that [sexual violence] happens here as much as it does anywhere else.
… The bigger issue is that people don’t even know about [sexual violence]. People need to feel better about reporting [incidents of sexual violence]. The administration and police need to be able to go after sexual predators, and if they were all aware of how much this was going on, it would be better.
DP: Tell me about your new awareness campaign.
JP: It’s the first time we’ve done one like this. We’ve put together 15 to 20 signs with resources on campus — where people can go to get a rape exam. There’s a 24-hour hotline.
There are a lot of myths about rape. A lot of people don’t know that four out of five times, when someone is raped, it’s by someone the victim knows, and the average length they’ve known them is for over a year.
We have a bunch of statistics, just shocking numbers that would really get people thinking and get them to take this issue more seriously.
DP: What do you hope this campaign accomplishes?
JP: This is one of our first big, campus-wide campaigns, and there are a lot of goals. One would be to have a rape exam provided at [the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania], which is not currently available to students, and certainly to publicize Penn’s [sexual violence] statistics.
Our biggest issue is spreading the word, and [ensuring that] both men and women feel comfortable with talking about the issue. Our biggest campaign is to help men feel comfortable standing up against people they feel are acting inappropriately.
Also, women need to support each other and talk to each other about this issue. We need to organize and get a dialogue going, because this is something that really affects a lot of people very deeply.
DP: Do you collaborate with similar groups in Philadelphia?
JP: Last year we worked with West Philadelphia High School [with] the Stay Safe Crew. It’s a group of high schoolers who give presentations to other high schoolers about physical violence. We went with them and talked to [students] about sexual violence and put together a program that hopefully they’ll use in the future.
WOAR is another good one — Women Organized Against Rape. We participated in a “White Ribbon” campaign with them last year, which was a citywide event.
DP: How can Penn students get involved with One in Four?
JP: Easiest way to get involved is to come to our info sessions, Tuesday and Wednesday, at 7 p.m. in F88 in Huntsman. There’s an interview process, but just come and learn about the group. It’s a social group — there are guys in the group who have been deeply impacted.
It’s a fun group, and we’re always looking for more guys. If you have strong public speaking skills, and you’re involved on campus, you’re our ideal candidate.
