Students will have access to online education and training on sexual harassment and assault by the 2015-15 school year, thanks to the Dean of Students Office.

Sexual Misconduct Prevention Coordinator Emily Erickson said the Dean of Students Office is close to implementing the training.

“There’s a funding piece of it,” Erickson said. “So we’ve put a request in to start next fiscal year, which starts in July, and the board will approve that budget in February. So once that happens, it will be all official, and we get to move forward.”

Erickson said student focus groups selected Not Anymore as a possible website St. Thomas can use.

Not Anymore features 19 different videos, or modules, that the Dean of Students Office can choose from for student viewing. These videos cover definitions of consent and sexual assault, rape culture, tips for bystander intervention, how to use verbal defense to get away from assailants, dating and domestic violence, definitions of sexual harassment and stalking, the commonality of alcohol as a date rape drug and what constitutes healthy relationships.

“They looked at a number of different platforms of education, and the students made a recommendation on their favorite,” Erickson said.

There is no guarantee that the Dean of Students Office will select Not Anymore as the platform, but the site is what students recommended and selected as the top choice. Once finalized, Erickson said students will probably access the online training through either the St. Thomas website or through an outside link.

Sophomore Sydney Burford said the online education will be useful, especially the information about verbal defense.

“It’s giving a better out,” Burford said. “It’s good to just be able to have the knowledge on how to get out of a situation without confrontation.”

Erickson said the modules feel authentic and thinks they will resonate with students.

“It didn’t feel ‘hokey training video time;’ it just felt down to earth,” Erickson said.

According to Erickson, this online training will be another part of St. Thomas’ overall plan to make sure the campus is safe.

“I would hope that it would give students some tools to feel like they could know how to watch out for their friends and make sure the people that they care about and the people who are in our community are safe,” Erickson said. She also hopes the training will help students feel empowered to intervene in situations that could potentially be risky.

In addition to planning for Not Anymore, Erickson said the Dean of Students Office is still working on the White House It’s On Us campaign.

“We’ve signed on an MOU – memorandum of understanding,” Erickson said. “It just says that yes, we’re going to work together on this. It gives us the right to use their logo, (and) we’re an official partner … so they put us as a link on their website.”

The Dean of Students Office has also partnered with the athletics department to show It’s On Us PSAs at basketball games in January and February.

Junior Jazzmine Jackson said it will be good for St. Thomas to provide students with more information on sexual assault and violence, especially since a lot of students are unaware of what to do.

“The information that is provided (at St. Thomas) is very limited and hard to find, so a website would be a very progressive step in that direction,” Jackson said. “I think it would provide students with a system of support that they can fall back on when necessary.”

Jackson said she’s been happy with the steps St. Thomas, and the Dean of Students Office in particular, have been making in regards to sexual assault and consent.

“It gives me a lot of hope for the future of the university,” Jackson said.

Jamie Bernard can be reached at bern2479@stthomas.edu.