Nicole Skinner, a first-year student at the University of Idaho, came to campus with a desire to impact students by sparking conversations about the issues that directly affect them on a day-to-day basis.
Skinner, a self-proclaimed activist, said she thought the UI Women’s Center was a great place to start that dialogue, so she applied to be the center’s event programming assistant.
After taking the position, Skinner said she discovered that as a member of the student staff, she was in charge of putting together a university event in relation to the Women’s Center and its mission statement.
Skinner said she decided to center her event around campus sexual assault in support of Sexual Assault Awareness Month and ended up creating a video presentation, “The Experiences of Women of College,” which will be aired at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Clearwater Room of the Idaho Commons.
She said the video project features 12 women, diverse, that come from all different backgrounds and majors, who she asked an array of questions to.
“I just basically wanted to hear about how college specifically impacts them and more specifically, how sexual assault has impacted them in a direct or indirect way … because unless you live under a rock, you know sexual assault happens and that it is incredibly detrimental and can either ruin lives temporarily or permanently,” Skinner said.
She said she wanted to also draw attention to how the fear of sexual assault is damaging to women and the serious precautions that they take to avoid it, before and after.
“Usually, when we talk about sexual assault, we talk about the after effects and being a survivor of sexual assault, I wanted to talk about the fear that effects women beforehand,” Skinner said. “It’s something that, whether or not it’s happened to you, wherever you live, even if it’s a safer place like Idaho, there is still that fear that exists within every single woman.”
Skinner said she didn’t tell the participants the video was focusing on sexual assault, but that somehow during each interview it was brought up every time by the student without Skinner prompting them.
Women’s Center Assistant Director for Programs Bekah MillerMacPhee said the Women’s Center asks students to put on these events because it is a huge part of what the center does, and it offers the students a great opportunity to shed light on something that they’re passionate about.
“Nicole (Skinner) is the first student we’ve had do a video project, so what she’s doing is definitely different,” MillerMacPhee said. “We are excited about how creative and enthusiastic she’s been.”
MillerMacPhee said when Skinner initially approached her with her idea, she not sure how it would all work out because of the serious effort it would take to put together. But she allowed her to run with it because of Skinner’s obvious excitement and reassurance.
Skinner said before taking the project on, she wasn’t too familiar with video production, so she chose that specific medium to force herself to step outside of her comfort zone.
“I think that not just hearing, but also seeing, the experience of a person gives a much stronger visual — it’s one thing to hear statistics about campus sexual assault, but it’s completely different to see these women you know talk about their experiences and their fears right here on our campus,” Skinner said. “Women are more than half the population and if something like this is affecting the way their everyday lives then we should know about it. It’s ridiculous to not know about it.”
Olivia Heersink can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @heersinkolivia