All students new to a Columbia degree program are required to participate, and everyone else is strongly encouraged!
If you are not required but would still like to participate in the Initiative please contact us at [email protected].
Choose one, or more, of the options below.
Gain the tools to maintain healthy relationships, understand consent and bystander intervention and help people who have experienced sexual violence.
For this option, choose from the collections of videos below. You must log into Courseworks to view the video collection. Be sure to answer the questions that follow to mark your completion.
If you are not required to complete the Initiative but would still like to participate, please write to [email protected] and provide your UNI.
Sexual Communication/Consent
These videos are all about consent – how to ask for it, how to know when someone is saying yes (or no), and what to do when you’re not sure.
Gender/Sex
These videos look at the existence and impact of gender roles, norms and identities.
Bystander Experience
These videos examine what it means to be a prosocial bystander and how to be one, including in a university community.
These acclaimed, feature-length documentaries are available to watch online. After viewing, you must log into Courseworks and answer the questions to fulfill your requirement. You will receive an email confirming participation within a few days of completion.
If you are not required to complete the Initiative but would still like to participate or if you are not able to access the course please write to [email protected] and provide your UNI.
To view the videos below, please login into Kanopy using the following credentials:
Username: columbiaul
Password: access
The Codes of Gender
Written and directed by MEF Executive Director Sut Jhally, The Codes of Gender applies the late sociologist Erving Goffman's groundbreaking analysis of advertising to the contemporary commercial landscape, showing how one of American popular culture's most influential forms communicates normative ideas about masculinity and femininity. In striking visual detail, The Codes of Gender explores Goffman's central claim that gender ideals are the result of ritualized cultural performance, uncovering a remarkable pattern of masculine and feminine displays and poses. It looks beyond advertising as a medium that simply sells products, and beyond analyses of gender that focus on biological difference or issues of objectification and beauty, to provide a clear-eyed view of the two-tiered terrain of identity and power relations. (72 min)
The Bystander Moment
The Bystander Moment tells the story of one of the most prominent and proven of these models — the innovative bystander approach developed by pioneering activist and writer Jackson Katz and his colleagues. In a riveting analysis illustrated with archival footage and clips from news, sports, and entertainment media, Katz explores the role of bystanders — especially friends, teammates, classmates, and co-workers — in perpetuating sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other forms of gender violence. Katz also gives special attention to the peer culture dynamics — in particular the male peer culture dynamics across race and ethnicity — that help to normalize sexism and misogyny while silencing other men in the face of abuse. Along the way, The Bystander Moment stresses the crucial importance of appealing to people not as potential perpetrators or passive spectators, but as active bystanders and potential leaders who have a positive role to play in challenging and changing the sexist cultural norms that too often lead to gender violence. The result is an indispensable educational tool in the ongoing struggle to prevent sexism and misogyny and promote gender equality. (49 min)
Choose from books, online resources or workshops for survivors facilitated by Counseling and Psychological Services.
These resources and workshops were selected to provide survivors and their supporters with information about healing and resilience. They include many personal stories and reflections about child sexual abuse, anti-LBGTQ+ violence and PTSD. They also address mindfulness and offer skills for healing and recovery.
If you are required to complete the Initiative, please do the following:
- Go to Courseworks
- Choose the Resources for Healing and Resilience
- Select: "I confirm that I completed Resources for Healing and Resilience"
- Indicate which of the below resources you utilized
If you are not required to complete the Initiative but would still like to participate please write to [email protected] and provide your UNI.
Books
For students who want to learn more about healing and trauma, these books are offered for survivors and those who may be supporting survivors. You do not need to identify as a survivor to participate, and survivors are not limited to this option.
Online Resources
For students who want to learn more about healing and trauma, these online resources are offered for survivors and those who may be supporting survivors. You do not need to identify as a survivor to participate, and survivors are not limited to this option.
For Survivors Only
Workshops
Counseling and Psychological Services offers survivor-specific workshops. Please call 212-854-2878 to register for a workshop. Your call and participation in this workshop will be kept confidential.
Survivor Advocates
Survivor Advocates provide survivors and their supporters with confidential emotional support, and accompaniment and referrals to on-campus and off-campus resources. Contact a Survivor Advocate at 212-854-HELP.
Participate in a CourseWorks module about relationship violence, sexual assault, stalking and sexual harassment.
Please make sure to select the Ongoing Education module in your dashboard.
These highly rated tutorials review many of the policies and themes discussed in the Pre-Orientation tutorials you completed before arriving on campus, and give more information on New York State Law.
If you are not able to access the course please email [email protected] and provide your UNI. You will receive an email confirming participation within a few days of completing this tutorial.
Choose a project that aligns with your interests or professional development goals, to do either on your own or with a small group!
Write to [email protected] for details.
Create a Video
Create a three- to five-minute video featuring students from Columbia explaining why sexual respect matters. Your video must include information about at least one on-campus resource (e.g., Columbia Health’s Sexual Violence Response [SVR] or the Sexual Respect website). Write to [email protected] for details.
Written Reflection on Fieldwork or Clinic Assignment
Are you participating in a fieldwork or clinic assignment in sexual health, crisis counseling or gender-based misconduct prevention as part of your Columbia degree program? Complete a written reflection of 500-750 words sharing what you learned and recognizing campus-based resources. Write to [email protected] for details.
Become a University Life Ambassador
University Life Ambassadors help spread the word, engage with student leaders and contribute ideas to the Community Citizenship Initiative. If you successfully complete the Ambassador requirements it will fulfill the Community Citizenship Initiative requirement. Write to [email protected] for details.
Design Your Own Project
Have an idea that isn’t included above? No problem! Students can design their own projects that fulfill the goals of the Initiative and highlight Columbia's core value of Sexual Respect. Write to [email protected] for details.