Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault. 

Nestled between the packed On-Campus Student Job Fair and Doheny Memorial Library on grassy Alumni Park Wednesday afternoon were five large tents, each of which was bustling with students and student workers alike to celebrate Sexual Assault Awareness Month Land. 

In recognition of April being Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, Relationship and Sexual Assault Violence Prevention Services, a subdivision of Student Health, hosted SAAMLAND. There were also booths for nonprofits and student organizations. 

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All students received an event passport and, if they went to all the tents and got all five stamps, they received a free tote bag and a burger from The Habit Burger Grill.

The first tent was the “consent tent,” where students learned that consent is CLEAR: Communicated, Limited, Enthusiastic, Active and Revocable. Students then participated in a game where they took hypothetical situations and identified which letter of the acronym it corresponded with in order to receive their stamp for the tent.

The second tent was the artist canopy, where students made bracelets, necklaces and keychains. Once completed, they could either keep their accessories for themselves or swap out their creation for another one they liked at the trading post tree.   

The community bungalow featured two activities. In one, students sat down in front of one of three poets from the Melrose Poetry Bureau, a Los Angeles-based collective that creates interactive poetry experiences on typewriters. Students fielded various questions from the poets such as “What is your understanding of consent?” and the poets wrote love letters to the students. 

Students also filled out “My Consent Journal: A Communication Tool,” which contained definitions for affirmative consent, bodily autonomy and boundaries. The journal prompted students to consider their relationship values, featured a template for talking about sex, and included pages on “sexploration.”

Student Health and the Jenesse Center, a domestic violence intervention and prevention program, tabled at the fourth booth, titled “Support Oasis.” There, students learned about on-campus and off-campus resources available for them.

“I thought the Support Oasis [tent] was really cute, because we were trying to fill it out and we’re like, ‘I don’t know what to put in these bubbles,’” said Kalei Cruz, a graduate student studying global security studies. “They also gave us these little [support guides] if you are in need.”

The fifth and final tent, the Resources + Checkout Table, was filled with stickers and pins which featured positive messages such as “Barbies with Boundaries” and “Kens for Kensent” for students to freely take. The Student Health booth also offered leaflets on topics like skin cancer, opioid overdose and mental health.  

Deborah Schleicher, director of RSVP, said SAAMLAND aimed for students to build community, join forces and become “agents of change.” She encouraged students to be “upstanders” by stepping up and intervening against rape culture and misogyny.

“Changing the culture or asking students to be upstanders is very hard as people come from different backgrounds where that might not be their forte,” Schleicher said. “But it certainly is impossible to ask students to be upstanders if they don’t understand what they’re seeing … and what we’re hoping to do is acknowledge why [acts such as catcalling are] harmful.”

Cruz said she thinks SAAMLAND will help make students more aware of sexual assault, adding that the only time she recalls the University addressing the issue was through an online module she first had to take upon entering USC.   

“People don’t want to talk about [sexual assault] or people have a hard time talking about it,” Cruz said. “You can’t see if someone’s experiencing [gender and power-based harm], that’s the sad part.”   

Schleicher said one in four USC female undergraduates are sexually assaulted and that part of the problem is people not believing survivors. 

“Our society just has a really bad issue around maybe not recognizing and acknowledging [sexual assault] and wanting to always question and be like, ‘Well, did that really happen?’” Schleicher said. “People just don’t want to believe they can be vulnerable or someone they love to be vulnerable.”

Students can go to RSVP to get help if they are a survivor or if they are the victim of any sort of gender and power-based violence, Schleicher said.

“[Hosting SAAMLAND] is a way to make sure people are aware of [sexual assault] and make sure the folks who have been impacted see that they have a community and that they have support and that we see them and we’re here for them,” Schleicher said. “We’re in the business of going out of business.”

If you are in need of support, here are some resources you can contact:

USC Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services: Located at Engemann Student Health Center Suite 356. Individuals can call (213)-740-9355 and request to speak with an advocate or counselor. Services are confidential.

Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN): A free, confidential hotline that is active 24/7. Individuals can call (800)-656-4673