STANFORD, Calif. – The Stanford football team's upcoming game Saturday against Arizona State is designated as the program's Sexual and Relationship Violence Awareness Day.
The genesis of the event started in April, when Brenda Tracy, a registered nurse from Portland, shared with the football team her devastating personal story of sexual violence and vital message of preventing such occurrences.
Tracy has addressed dozens of college teams and many more on the high school level in the past year. Tracy also serves on the NCAA's Commission to Combat Campus Sexual Violence, which was formed last year and counts among its 26 members Stanford head coach David Shaw.
"It's about educating people so they understand this time in young people's lives and what they need to understand about their relationships with women," said Shaw.
Tracy, who calls her campaign "Set The Expectation," will be in attendance and introduced to the crowd during an on-field recognition. Stanford was the first college football program to sign the Set The Expectation Student Pledge stating that, among other things: playing football is a privilege, not a right; that they are held to a higher standard; that their words and actions matter and can influence what others do; that they understand behavior such as rape, sexual assault, physical violence, domestic and dating violence, stalking, bullying, hazing, and taking or sharing photos and videos of a sexually explicit or violent nature is never okay and will not be tolerated; such behavior will subject them to discipline by the head coach, athletic director and university, including suspension or removal from the team.
The freshman class signed it during their first day on campus.
She asked the Cardinal to join her in working to end the culture of sexual assault and domestic violence in athletics.
And the Cardinal is answering.
Stanford will be doing a number of things Saturday to bring awareness to sexual and relationship violence.
Patches will be worn on the shirts of all Stanford football staff members, and teal and purple stickers -- teal represents sexual violence awareness and purple represents relationship violence awareness -- will be worn on all of the student-athletes' helmets. Both Stanford and Arizona State will wear the helmet ribbons.
T-shirts reading "Set the Expectation" will be distributed to all Stanford students in attendance. The shirts also feature on-campus resources, such as the Title IX office. Stanford's football student-athletes will be wearing the shirt before and after the game.
Pledges will be available on the concourse throughout the game for fans to sign, pledging their efforts towards stopping behavior such as sexual and relationship violence.
The Stanford women's lacrosse team and other student-athletes will be on the concourse to encourage fans to sign the pledge. Stanford's Title IX office representatives will be stationed at the stadium's student entrance to provide resources and messaging pertaining to the cause.
The pledge will be available at GoStanford.com for fans to sign and return.
