Culture of Respect campaign unites CWU community through education

Creating a campus culture where all faculty, staff, and students demonstrate respect and kindness in every interaction doesn’t happen overnight, but doing the little things has a way of adding up over time.

Last fall, CWU launched a three-part Culture of Respect campaign to help Wildcats embody the university’s vision to be a model learning community of equity and belonging. The multi-tiered campaign was created to help CWU show our dedication to fostering a community where respect forms the foundation of every interaction.

The campaign also helps encourage behaviors that promote a sense of belonging for all members of the CWU community. The emphasis in the fall was on “consent,” while the focus for winter quarter is on “boundaries.” Spring quarter will center around “bystander intervention.”

The campaign’s name is inspired by The Culture of Respect Collective, a national initiative to end campus sexual violence, which Central joined in 2019. It is also inspired by the Culture of Respect Leadership Council, which was established in spring 2023 following recommendations from the CWU SAFE workgroup.

With the campaign just getting started this academic year, the goal is to expand the messaging in the future.

“We wanted to start small this year and then eventually work with others on campus to share the message more broadly,” said Katie Parks with the Office of Health Promotion and PATH (Prevention, Advocacy, Training, and Healing), who is co-leading the campaign with Laura Brant-Hoefer from Civil Rights Compliance and Title IX.

“Our goal is to normalize respectful behavior across campus and remind people that this is who we are as Wildcats,” Parks added. “This is our culture at CWU, and there’s a shared expectation for how we treat one another.”

As Brant-Hoefer explained, showing mutual respect may feel like a natural behavior to many of us, but we all have different definitions of “consent” and “boundaries” based on our backgrounds and life experiences.

“Not everyone thinks in the same way, and it’s important for us to take a step back and consider how our actions may be affecting other people,” said Brant-Hoefer, CWU’s Deputy Title IX Coordinator.

By providing a common language for all members of the CWU community, the campaign encourages students and employees to have conversations about everyday consent and boundaries. This way, everyone learns how to approach their interactions respectfully.

“These are skills that are learned, and they are new to a lot of people,” said Parks, CWU’s Assistant Director for Violence Prevention and Response. “There’s a lot to think about, and we are trying to create a place where we can all hold each other accountable.”

What is Consent?

Brant-Hoefer and Parks explained that many people immediately think of sex when they hear the word “consent,” but it’s much more than that.

“Sex is one of the most high-stakes interactions we have as humans, and we should start much smaller than that,” Parks said.

As outlined on CWU’s Culture of Respect website, consent is about relating to other people through clear and kind communication. Seeking out consent is one way you can treat other Wildcats how they want to be treated, the Crimson Rule.

Negotiating consent involves making independent choices about one's body, life, and future, regardless of the context (e.g., sexual, medical, educational, workplace). In a basic sense, consent is about respect in any relationship or social exchange.

“Consent happens in a wide range of everyday interactions,” Brant-Hoefer said. “Things like hugs and handshakes aren’t the same for everyone. We need to learn how to navigate these social nuances, as well as how to talk about our own comfort levels.”

Other examples of everyday consent include asking others if it’s OK to:

• take a photo or video;
• touch their body (e.g., hair, back, arms);
• sit next to or with someone;
• shut a door to a confined space; or
• give unsolicited feedback or advice.

What are Boundaries?

Boundaries are what people consider acceptable and unacceptable. Your boundaries are personal limits or expectations that help you define what kinds of interactions you are comfortable with.

Having clear boundaries can boost your self-esteem, make you feel safe, and help you feel respected in your relationships with friends, family, peers, and acquaintances.

“Everyone has heard of the Golden Rule — treat others like you want to be treated yourself,” Parks said. “Here are Central, we encourage people to follow the Crimson Rule, where we treat other Wildcats the way they want to be treated, not how we decide to treat them.”

This approach recognizes that all Wildcats are unique individuals with different backgrounds, experiences, and identities. Treating them as they would like to be treated ultimately helps foster a Culture of Respect.

“To many of us, this feels like common sense,” Brant-Hoefer said. “But not everyone has had the same life experiences, and we need to be sensitive to those differences. We should all be a little more curious about how our behaviors impact other people, and that’s what this campaign is about.”