Brothers at the University of Northern Iowa live their oath every day in a commitment to end sexual assault across their college campus. In honor of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Northern Iowa dedicated a week of campus programming to this issue affecting students nationwide.

“Standing up against sexual assault exemplifies all three of our Cardinal Principles,” Vice President of Programming Justin Carlyle, Northern Iowa ’18, says. “Sexual assault is a sickening reality, because we feel that one sexual assault is too many. That is someone’s someone, whether it be a daughter, sister, mother, brother, son.”

Brothers decided to do something by focusing on intentional, local programming through the chapter’s own Sexual Assault Awareness Week (SAAW). Some of the events included a film and panel discussion; a self-defense training course; and a self-care day with animal therapy.

One event which stands out to the chapter the most is the 24-hour See-SAAW program they kicked the week off with.

“It goes from noon to noon, and features brothers riding see-saws for 24 hours straight to show that sexual assault can happen at any time and is a never-ending issue,” says Chapter President Jared Riter, ’18.

As dedicated as Northern Iowa is to ending sexual assault on college campuses, their idea for SAAW stemmed from a relationship with a local non-profit organization, Cedar Valley Friends of the Family. This organization seeks “to provide safe shelter, confidential services, and housing assistance to individuals in crisis due to homelessness, domestic violence and sexual assault.”

“Fraternities have a stereotype—part of which is based on actual bad things happening at fraternity houses,” says Vice President of Communications Dawson Jones, ’18. “We thought SAAW could be an impactful way to show the community that our Fraternity really is different.”

SAAW has been a valuable programming component to Northern Iowa’s campus for the past four years. Due to this success, the chapter intends to carry it forward and live out the SigEp oath even further.

“As fraternity men, we are not the problem,” Riter says. “Rather, we are the root of the solution.”

Last year, SigEp formed a partnership with Alpha Delta Pi Sorority called Live Your Oath. As leading Greek organizations on campuses across the nation, we believe that together we can make an impact to fight campus sexual assault. Learn more about SigEp’s efforts to end sexual assault and sexual misconduct on college campus.