Last Friday, April 26, the Asian Student Union (ASU) hosted a dinner and discussion in regards to the Me Too movement in honor of April being Sexual Assault Awareness month. The event focused on how the movement has developed in Japan. The event was held from 5:00 -6:00 p.m. in Messa Minerva with free food and discussions.

The Me Too, otherwise known on social media as the #MeToo movement, is a large movement against sexual assault and sexual harassment. It became widely popular in the fall of 2017, with large numbers of people speaking out on social media, using the hashtag #MeToo to demonstrate the perceived prevalence of sexual assault and sexual harassment.

The movement was extremely popular in the United States, but the discussion and video viewing on Friday pertained more to the movement’s increasing popularity in Japan and other Asian countries. Many of the people who attended the event did not realize that the movement had spread globally, due to it being thought of as more of a Western movement.

First, a video was shown highlighting Shiori Ito, who explained her personal experience with sexual assault and how she became the main force behind the movement in Japan. This video showed how different this issue is viewed in other countries because, as Ito mentions there is a strong stigma associated with talking about sexual assault and violence in Japan. She also said how the only way for change to happen was to start talking about these issues. That was one of the reasons why the talk was taking place.

After watching the interview clip with Ito, a discussion then opened up to the students.

Some international students from places like Vietnam and Thailand spoke to how the topic is also not commonly talked about in their countries, similar to Japan.

The topic of conversation then shifted to a more localized discussion of the Me Too movement on college campuses in the United States of America. Students spoke about what changes can be made to not only combat the issue, but to also make more people aware of what is going on. Students put forward suggestions, that included programs geared toward decreasing the percieved prevalence of the sexual assault in the Greek Life community.

Union College currently requires most members of Greek organizations to go through training exercises geared at helping them identify and prevent sexual assault.

On April 17. the College has asked students to complete a survey about sexual assault and harassment on campus. This came after an email sent to the campus from President’s Office in which President Harris reaffirmed his commitment to, “prevent harassment and assault of all types.”