During the past few weeks, a social marketing campaign has begun to appear around Tufts.
An army of spray-painted paper dolls descended on campus. Mysterious flyers of generic male and female forms and a poster about mixing were tacked up among the colorful wallpaper announcements. Most noticeably, a group of decorated wooden cut-outs populated our campus this week and last. The figures, in particular, have elicited a variety of reactions from passers-by, from apathy to curiosity, confusion to passion. Underlying all these responses is the common question: What does this mean?
That is exactly the question the artwork asks. What do these images and words mean to you? How do you feel about the display around campus? (Is it inspiring? Offensive? Unsettling?) What does it make you think about?
The carefully constructed campaign will surface throughout the semester via art, posters, theater and educational programs that encourage you to stop and take a second look.
Guided by Tufts undergraduate survey data and a year of student discussions about our community, professionals and students from a variety of backgrounds are collaborating to bring a spectrum of topics prevalent in student life to light.
While the dangers of drug and alcohol use, sex and relationships are taught in earlier educational settings, our college campus is home to very real and sometimes subtle iterations of these abstractions.
The cut-outs around campus are just one of several artistic presentations from the Arts for Culture Change project that incorporate provocative imagery and factual information intended to spark conversation about often taboo or invisible topics that affect us all.
Think about this: You just turned in a paper, you have a test to study for, there is early-morning practice and a late-night meeting. This makes for a busy schedule. Add to that a fight with your roommate, an unexpected call from home and a meager helping of sleep, and it's no wonder that on the weekends you want nothing more than to forget about the preceding five days.
This is your mix, the mental, emotional, chemical and social influences you bring to the table. These are the factors that determine what you do and how you react, often with unintended consequences.
When asked if they know someone who has been victimized, fraternity brothers, sorority sisters, athletes, RA's, musicians and first-years all overwhelmingly responded "yes."
Yes, they have stayed up all night to take care of a roommate with alcohol-induced sickness in their first days at Tufts. Yes, they have received unwanted sexual attention from a person who has been drinking. Yes, they have or know someone who has hooked up and regretted it the next day. Clearly, everyone has had these experiences; such incidents are not isolated events. These answers illustrate the need for dialogue.
The following is stated in the mission of this program: "The goal is not to judge the choices you make or to control your behavior. The hope is that through outreach, prevention, harm reduction, awareness, information, marketing and being realistic and honest we can effect change in the culture ... [that will serve] you well now and in the future."
Our culture tolerates and perpetuates these issues, and our lives are touched by them. Only we can change the campus culture and set standards befitting the self-aware and intelligent members of the Tufts community.
So if you've walked by a poster and responded with confusion, good; be sure to look again the next time you walk by. Keep your eyes open. If you've seen a wooden figure and stepped away, wonderful; notice your reactions. If you've read the flyer and felt understood, fabulous; let's talk about what's going on.
The purpose is to give us all food for thought. The point is to make thinking people think. The goal is to make the invisible visible. So, keep looking, keep talking, and continue the conversation with us at the Opening Party, tonight, Sept. 28 in Hotung from 5-7 p.m.
The authors are associated with the "In the Mix" social marketing campaign which is a program of the Arts for Culture Change Project, an initiative co-sponsored by the Tufts Alcohol and Drug Program and the Campus Violence Prevention Project.
