The New School News

International Recognition: New Sexual Assault Awareness Campaign is a Hit


Every April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but this year, the month has a special significance. 2012 marks the first year of The New School’s new sexual assault policy, the result of months of conversation and research by the students and staff on the university’s Sexual Assault Awareness Committee.

To raise awareness about this new policy and its sexual assault educational goals, several offices within Student Services asked one our own Parsons Design and Technology alumna Neha Shah to design a visual campaign. Neha at the time was part of the Sexual Assault Awareness Committee and a design assistant in the Office of Communications for Student Services.

My aim was to keep the design simple and bold yet inclusive of gender, sexual orientation, and ethnicity,, says Shah. I worked towards creating different in-brand posters under the umbrella message of Yes Means Yes. The simplicity of the campaign was important for memorability and also for its ability to be replicated both in print and online.,

Neha’s posters gained international attention when they and details of the sexual assault awareness campaign appeared on the web. The New School’s Office of Student Health and Support Services found itself receiving calls and emails from all over the globe, including the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre and the Coventry City Council in the UK asking for copies of the posters as well as details on how the school made it happen.

All of this is good news for the committee and all their hard work over the past year and with Sexual Assault Awareness Month upon us the university activities continue with:

  • The Clothesline Project on display now through April 30. New School students demonstrate their solidarity against relationship violence and abuse by hand-painting T-shirts with messages. The T-shirts are hung on clotheslines in windows and other public spaces around campus.
  • The Vagina Monologues performance on April 14. The play is part of the V-Day movement to end violence against women and girls worldwide.
  • Let Me Remember, a multimedia performance on April 21.

For more information on sexual assault awareness and prevention visit the Wellness and Health Promotion webpage. To get involved email wellness@newschool.edu.

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