Earlier this semester, CSUN students received an email which stated students need to complete an online training for sexual misconduct in order to register for classes, according to the office of the president.
According to the email, students are required to watch a 25-minute video titled Every Choice that helps prevent sexual misconduct in certain situations in order for students to gain knowledge on the topic and make the campus a safer place.
Maya Rustom, the student coordinator for Project D.A.T.E., said she believes the video will help students know what to do in situations that might lead to sexual assault.
“I think that situations that lead to rape or sexual assault are definitely a case-by-case basis and it’s hard to give as many prevention tips as possible to prevent somebody from things in that situation,” Rustom said. “I definitely think that this Title IX video helps connect the students to a more relatable factor in terms of bystander intervention and lowering your risk tips as well as how to identify what may not be consensual.”
Students have also said that they found the video to be informative and helpful after watching it.
“I thought it was helpful and I felt like I learned some new things and it gave me ideas I feel like I wouldn’t usually have in those situations,” Bailey Land, psychology major, said.
Sofia Buitron, a criminology major, also said she found the online training helpful.
“I learned how to prevent the different scenarios that the video showed and I would want to help people in those situations,” Buitron said. “I found that It was very informative for me.”
However, Araceli Govea, a biology major, said she found it to be a hassle to do the training.
“When I was watching it, I saw it and I was like ‘I know this stuff’ I felt like it was just common sense,” Govea said.
Govea said she thinks many students, like herself, are not taking the video as seriously as they should and just skip through it.
“I wouldn’t have done it voluntarily,” Govea said. “It felt like a threat like ‘you can’t register for classes until you do it’ I mean it’s already a hassle trying to register for classes and now they add this on top of that.”
Govea also said sometimes many students do not want to get involved in other people’s business and it’s hard for some people to jump into situations that the video demonstrated and get involved.
Even though Govea found the registration hold to be a hassle, Rustom said it was an effective way for students to get informed.
“I think it’s difficult for students to, for example, get students to do something school wide without putting a registration hold on that because teachers will send out surveys sometimes or the bookstore, for example, send out emails to win gift cards and students kind of disregard the emails,” Rustom said.
