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Utah State University is asking students to intervene to prevent sexual assault and support victims.
Starting Jan. 30, students will be asked to sign a pledge to that effect — either in person or online — as part of stepped-up efforts to raise awareness on the issue.
"By involving students as engaged bystanders, we can create an environment in which sexual assault is intolerable and survivors are supported by everyone," USU President Noelle Cockett said Tuesday in a news release.
In conjunction with the "I Will" pledge campaign, USU has launched a sexual-assault landing webpage to help students understand how to report sexual assault and what resources are available to them.
The campaign is part of the university's response to concerns raised in July when The Salt Lake Tribune reported that four women — who did not know one another — separately told Logan police in 2015 that former Aggies linebacker Torrey Green had sexually assaulted them.
Three of the women were USU students and say they informed the school. It does not appear that the school disciplined the football player, but the story prompted officials to conduct an internal investigation that resulted in eight recommendations for improving how it addresses sexual assault.
The bystander-intervention campaign builds on one launched last semester, which focused on consent. Signs, social media posts and messages on university shuttle bus windows sought to spread the definition of consent across campus.
Now, students will be asked to pledge to intervene if consent isn't or can't be given and to step in if they witness sexual-assault warning signs. Additionally, the pledge urges students to not tolerate behaviors or attitudes that perpetuate the problem — and to believe and help victims.
"By putting the responsibility on the community as a whole, it also helps dispel myths about sexual violence and discourages victim-blaming," USU Title IX Coordinator Stacy Sturgeon said in the release.
Students can sign the pledge in person from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Jan. 30 to Feb. 1 in the Taggart Student Center, or online at iwill.usu.edu until March 11.
USU has also changed its confidentiality and amnesty policies involving sexual assaults, and school officials are developing an agreement with local law enforcement about how and when to share information about students.
The Logan school also is developing a climate survey to gauge campus safety and attitudes on the issue.
After The Tribune's story was published in July, Cache County prosecutors began re-examining the cases and later charged Green in seven alleged assaults between November 2013 and November 2015. He is currently being held in Cache County Jail and his preliminary hearings are scheduled for March 29-31.
USU's "I Will" campaign will run until March 11, with six weekly messages focused on prevention, reporting and victim support.
Twitter @alexdstuckey