‘The Hook Up’ event educates on consent
More than 100 USD students filled the Muenster University Center Ballroom on Tuesday night to learn about sexual assault prevention through a satirical programming event titled “The Hook Up.”
“The Hook Up” is an event put together by the Chicago-based organization Carthis Productions. The South Dakota Coalition Ending Domestic & Sexual Violence (SDCEDSV) paid to have this event take place at all South Dakota Board of Regents schools.
David Seeber, the event host, began by describing common hookup scenarios. He asked audience members to describe normal hookups and what determines a good hookup versus a bad hookup.
Mya Parry, a first-year anthropology major, said she enjoyed how easy it was to participate in the conversation.
“I thought it was very informative and I actually enjoyed it,” she said. “I thought it was fun and it got everyone talking about sex, which is great and got people talking about consent, which is also great.”
“The Hook Up” program also covered typical hookup scenarios and deciphered what causes it to change from a hookup to sexual assault. Seeber focused his presentation on rape culture and how that affects the definition of sexual assault in society.
Marisa Cummings, ICARE program coordinator, said the purpose of “The Hook Up” program was to continue educating students on sexual assault and learn how to prevent it.
Cummings said she thought the program presenter did a good job explaining perpetrator behavior.
“I like the way that he expressed perpetrator behavior, so he wasn’t targeting that all men are rapists,” Cummings said. “He was saying that very few men are committing these crimes but those men that are, are repeat offenders.”
Cummings said USD has to address the problem of rape culture.
“We have a rape culture that supports that type of behavior,” she said. “How do we as a USD community end that culture here on campus? How do we create a culture that we as bystanders look out for each other and that we call people out for inappropriate behaviors?”
The program placed action in the hands of students witnessing sexual assault. Seeber said consent cannot be given if someone is under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Emma Bankers, a first-year business marketing major, said she enjoys talking and learning about sexual consent and educating people on the importance of consent in relationships. Bankers said the event did a good job of including students’ opinions and getting them to realize they have to work to make a change.
“The event educated people and told them to go out and be vigilant,” Banker said. “You can’t just have someone go out to patrol all parties, and he called people out so it put the responsibility on us. But I really enjoyed it. It was educational but also fun.”
SDCEDSV provided pre-test and post-tests in order to gather information on whether the program was effective or not.
Cummings said they will be meeting to determine if “The Hook Up” programming will be held at USD in the future again.
“I am really excited to hear student feedback,” she said. “We need to know if it is something that students actually want to come back. I am just really excited to see if students are engaged in this and want to participate in in the future.”
