Students took a special interest in spreading awareness about sexual assault on campus this week to correlate with Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

The week started with seniors Meredith Hodges and Kat Fritz decorating the Grape Arbor with underwear for the Panty Line Project.

The idea for the project came from an organization in Lawrence called GaDuGi, which provides free services to victims of sexual assault. The project works by hanging underwear decorated by survivors to express their feelings along the Grape Arbor.

“The Panty Line Project will be hanging up all week and will have messages from victims of fear, hate, sadness and strength,” Hodges said. “I am just really excited to hear the responses about the project from the campus.”

On Tuesday there was a staff member from GaDuGi who came and gave a presentation on information about sexual assault and tips on how to help out victims.

The presentation was called “How to Help a Friend” and will hopefully assist students to know more ways to help someone who has been directly or indirectly involved in sexual assault.

Wednesday, students on campus were encouraged to wear denim for International Denim Day.

According to Hodges, International Denim Day is a protest in regards to an Italian Supreme Court decision that was overturned in 1999 dealing with a rape conviction. The court said the woman could not have gotten raped because she was wearing jeans, which are too difficult to remove.

“We encouraged the students to get involved this week and address the issue of sexual assault; to take a pledge not to stay silent when it comes to sexual assault,” Hodges said.

Director of Counseling Center Tim Hodges acted as a resource for the week and helped facilitate many of the activities that were presented.

He hopes students see the stigma around sexual assault and help to reduce that by getting involved throughout the week or just figure out how to help a friend in need.

“I want the students to know that there are resources for students affected by sexual assault to go to and that Baker, either through the counseling center or just an individual that a person feels comfortable talking to, can help; that victims should know that they are not

alone,” Tim said.

Fritz took a personal interest in promoting the awareness by working directly with the organization GaDuGi for an internship.

“I feel like this week is really important because we really don’t talk about sexual assault and the stigma around it,” Fritz said. “The organization provides free services that people should know about.”