President Barack Obama unveiled a public awareness campaign Friday called “It’s On Us.” According to a White House statement, the campaign will, “engage college students and all members of campus communities in preventing sexual assault.”

Organizers and officials associated with the program will work with more than 200 colleges and universities across the country, including St. Thomas. To help spread the word about the platform, a video was released which includes Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and numerous celebrities voicing their opinions about sexual assault. St. Thomas Dean of Students Karen Lange said she was both excited and intrigued by the new initiative.

“We thought (the video) was great,” Lange said. “(Associate Dean of Students Rachel Harris) is going to use it tonight in a training session. It looked like you could sign up to pledge, and then it would actually affect your Facebook status, so it would say that you’re pledging for a violence-free campus.”

While the use of celebrities and officials with power in the video help reach a wider audience, senior Rhiannon Murray said this might not be the most effective approach.

“I think it’d be so much more effective if we used victims,” Murray said. “Not that we should take them and drag them out to put on national TV, but at the end of the day, these are celebrities that are getting paid to be in a video.”

The campaign will target males to report threats and physical violence against women, and Harris stated that she will be using the “It’s On Us” video at her presentation Friday night with St. Thomas’ all-male fraternity, Sigma Chi.

“Most men, 98 percent to 99 percent of men, don’t think that violence against women is something that’s acceptable or violence at all is acceptable,” Harris said. “So (the ad) is trying to bridge that gap in terms of being able to say stand up for what you really believe in and we all need to change our culture around behaviors.”

Sophomore Meghan Petersen said men need to realize that the culture on college campuses is to blame for the sexual assault problem and that it is up to them to be the ones to bring about change.

“The rape culture in general, the victims are blamed, it’s like, oh you should carry pepper spray and not walk alone at night, and get this nail polish that tests date rape drugs,” Petersen said. “It’s not our problem. Men need to be the ones who need to change what they’re doing; they need to see this video and realize that it’s their problem to address.”

Senior Kish Daniels said that men need to be aware of a line that can’t be crossed, and he added that the Ray Rice domestic violence case has led to conversations between members of the football team.

“I think people just set expectations. If a girl doesn’t say yes, they think they got to just keep trying and sometimes people cross that line,” Daniels said. “I’m on the football team, and we’ve talked about the case a lot and what should happen and what shouldn’t happen.”

Lange agreed that the campaign is one that all students can be actively involved in.

“Here’s a way for (students) to actively participate and say, ‘Yup’ and stand up and say, ‘Yeah I’m going to do it. It’s on me, and I’m going to pay attention when I’m out with my friends, and if I see something, I’m going to get help or do something myself or distract the situation somehow,’” Lange said. “I think it’s great, and I think it’s a real natural thing for us to be a part of.”

Faculty and staff have also been taking steps to get involved and endorse the campaign across campus.

“It’s really across the university,” Lange said. “We have the general counsel’s office involved and Human Resources and the Vice President for Student Affairs office and there’s … Green Dot members across all the university, so it’s really a collaborative effort from the whole university.”