“Wait, I have to spend how long on this sexual assault prevention thing?”

I’ve heard that question nearly a dozen times, and, during the past few weeks, asked it a time or two myself. I and other St. Thomas students asking that question are referring to the online sexual assault education module, Not Anymore.

I’m thankful that St. Thomas offered this training and is continuing to play its part in preventing sexual assault among students. The university included a sexual assault prevention lesson in its orientation when I came to St. Thomas, had organized events and hosted speakers every year, and now, as I begin my senior year, is requiring all students to complete Not Anymore. We should commend the university for taking steps to combat an issue that is important and has long been ignored on college campuses.

Yet I can’t help but feel a bit underwhelmed after completing the Not Anymore module.

By now, most St. Thomas students have probably finished the training, as the deadline for completion was Sept. 25. The first thing you’ll hear from people who have taken it is how long the program takes to complete. And while I applaud the efforts to make the module as thorough as possible, I can’t help but think that eventually works against the education effort.

As I began the module, I answered survey questions thoughtfully, remained mindful of the impact sexual assault prevention will have and diligently watched the videos included in the program. But after an hour and a half, I was still only halfway done and the training had lost my attention. During the second half of Not Anymore, I barely followed the videos, did some homework and checked the module a handful of times.

After more than two hours, I had finally completed Not Anymore. All that remained was to take a post-test on the material in the module. And to my disappointment, I scored well above the required 80 percent score on the test and finished at 95 percent. Even after paying little attention to large swaths of the training, I was still only a few questions away from a perfect score, and I’m certainly not the only student who falls into that category.

I talked to two people who said they didn’t even watch the training. “You don’t have to watch the videos,” they told me. “All the questions are leading; they basically give you the answers.”

Students might be receptive to the message Not Anymore is sending, but the program – or at least the version of the program the university chose to implement – is pushing a considerable number of students away with its length.

And it’s a shame, really. Not Anymore is sharing an important message, providing valuable education and doing it in a fairly engaging way. There are truly harrowing videos, in which survivors describe being sexually assaulted, that made me shiver. The best of Not Anymore personalizes sexual assault and connects with the viewer.

Yet those moments are mostly forgotten over the course of the hours-long module and overshadowed by other uninspired videos – specifically a Reefer Madness-esque description of the dangers of alcohol. While Not Anymore – and St. Thomas – has the best of intentions, the message is diluted by the program’s length and mediocrity.

Knowing that St. Thomas is now required to enforce a university-wide sexual assault prevention program due to recent legislation, I think the university did OK with what it had in a relatively short time period. But I still go back to the only word I can really use to describe my feelings on the program – underwhelmed. I’m comforted by the fact the university will continue to improve its sexual assault prevention and education efforts because it needs to. I hope that universities, especially St. Thomas, will do everything they can to prevent sexual assault on their campuses because it’s an issue that cannot continue to go unaddressed.

Jacob Sevening can be reached at seve8586@stthomas.edu.