The Office of Residence Life at BGSU understands how important it is for college students to understand what consent is, and how to ask for it. BGSU’s Office of Residence Life purchased Custom Condom Wallets that they designed to say You Mustache for Consent.
On their website, they say: “At BGSU, we hope to create an environment where such behavior is unacceptable and cannot exist. The Office of Residence Life also plays an important role in stopping sexual assault on our campus. As such, the office has been, and will continue to engage in several pro-active initiatives.”
They’re collaborating with the Wellness Center handing out these condom wallets filled with condoms to any student who goes to the Wellness Center or asks their RA for one. Along with handing out these condom wallets, they’re hosting different events and workshops throughout the academic year to educate students even further. A couple of these events include one about how to address sexual violence on campus, and another is about healthy relationships and consent.
To get students more active in the campaign, Stephanie Brinkman, the Coordinator for Recruitment and Communications in the Office of Residence Life said, “We had vinyl mustaches created with the slogan on them and placed them on mirrors in our residence halls, Student Union restrooms and rec center (gym & locker room). We had them cut…so when taking a selfie, the mustache was legible when lined up over the upper lip. We hoped this would be a fun way students could share the message without having to “ask” them to share.”
When asked why they chose to do this campaign at the time they did, Stephanie explained, “Campus partners created a spring semester sexual assault awareness campaign. Each campus partner picked a month to do their part in educating the campus either through an event or some other avenue. Residence Life did a series of educational events inside the residence halls throughout the month of February and then kicked off the “You Mustache For Consent” campaign at the end of February rolling into March. All of the educational messages, mustache stickers, etc. will be up for the remainder of the year. We felt doing a branded campaign in the halls would have a lasting impression beyond all of the training they students went through during the month.”
While they haven’t surveyed students to see what the exact impact has been, Residence Life has received almost 24,000 impressions on Social Media in just the first three days of rolling out the campaign! Stephanie explained, “Because of the ‘fun’ play on words, we did consider some people may think we weren’t taking this seriously. The fact that the play on words made you think a little before you understood the message, added another layer of education and was more memorable.”
We love what BGSU has done to get students interested and involved in these important conversations about consent! Check out their website and information about their other programs happening here.