Content warning: this article contains references to sexual assault and violence.

It practically goes without saying that sexual violence is a problem on college campuses. Across all genders, 18- to 24-year olds are at a higher risk of experiencing sexual violence than any other adult age demographic in the general population.

However, I’m not here to regurgitate the same — although nonetheless important — messages many of us have heard before: We should care about the pervasiveness of sexual violence, and institutions should counter it.  Educational programs aimed at preventing sexual violence on college campuses — including USC — already exist. Consequently, the issue of sexual violence in colleges depends less on whether there are preventative measures and more on whether those measures function by reducing sexual violence in practice.

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To better understand how programs like USC’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Consent and Healthy Relationships modules play out, I spoke with Elisabeth Shimada, a Dornsife Fellow in general education under the Department of Sociology. 

Shimada pointed out that collegiate institutions’ approaches to preventing sexual violence often paint a removed picture of consent, which contributes to students feeling unmotivated to practice consent in their own lives.

“One of the misconceptions about affirmative consent is that it has to be super clinical, that it can’t be sexy, that it can’t be romantic,” Shimada said. “I always tell my students one of the most romantic things that you can do is ask your partner if they like whatever’s going on. That can be part of that romance of the situation.”

A key takeaway from this is that programs aimed at preventing sexual violence should go beyond simply educating students on consent and instead encourage students to feel they can naturally implement consent in their interactions and relationships. 

USC’s programs for preventing sexual violence achieve the first requirement through content dedicated to consent within both the required module types.

However, with regard to the second requirement — naturally implementing consent — USC’s preventative education appears to significantly lack realistic application to student’s lives. When I’ve gone through these programs myself, I noticed they often used awkward, robotically-worded examples that the average college student wouldn’t feel inclined to use.

For students to implement consent in their personal lives, USC should alter its programming to focus more on examples that are relevant to students’ lives. This is entirely feasible as USC has already surveyed students on campus sexual assault culture in the past. 

Moving forward, USC can survey students about which examples they would genuinely use and suggestions for new examples they think are helpful. Utilizing this input, USC can periodically update how it educates on sexual violence so information provided is as beneficial as possible to students. 

USC should also broaden the focus of its education on sexual violence. Both the SAP modules and the Consent and Healthy Relationships programming cover a relatively narrow scope of sexual violence by showing case-by-case situations, such as whether a certain relationship dynamic is unhealthy, without addressing broader societal patterns. 

Contextualizing sexual violence within societal patterns is important because certain groups, such as transgender students and college students who are men — compared to men the same age who aren’t college students — are more likely to experience sexual violence in college. Moreover, nuanced understandings of sexual violence can both increase bystander intervention and assist students in protecting themselves.

“The social sciences … could inform students about, one, how they can approach their relationships and their sexual relationships, but also how they could interact with their friends that have experienced sexual violence, and even [their] friends that have perpetrated sexual violence,” Shimada said.

Accordingly, disregarding the social science lens on sexual violence is ultimately a disservice to students. To further enhance its sexual violence prevention, USC should inform students through a more interdisciplinary approach that includes societal and psychological considerations of sexual violence risk patterns and their effects. 

Besides changes to the educational content covered, USC should also change the manner the prevention programs are administered. 

The exclusively online nature of the programs leads to students being more influenced by distractions and less able to take in information. The live session I participated in lacked engagement from students who were clearly focused on other tasks like doing their laundry, or who simply did not contribute to the “required participation” discussions. 

Research conducted at Ball State University, University of Cincinatti and Sam Houston State University found college students who have completed mandatory online sexual assault training reported that online training was ineffective and in-person alternatives would allow them to better engage with the information. 

Ultimately, USC should transition to requiring live in-person sessions instead of online, so that students can better connect, internalize and ultimately implement the information they learn and together build a campus community that effectively prevents sexual violence.