Why is this work relevant for Media?

Instead of creating a traditional ad campaign, we put policy into practice creating a new university subject: Subject Zero. Interactive posters featuring QR codes created from student images turned awareness into action – prompting students to report sexual misconduct, start a confidential conversation, be safe on campus, get consent from a sexual partner, and call out harassment. Subject Zero essentially became our media channel, bringing sexual conduct education and empowerment into the places where assault and harassment are most likely to occur. And this new media strategy worked – reaching and interacting with almost 57,000 people in the university community.

Background

The Australian Human Rights Commission reports that 1 in 5 Australian students experience sexual harassment or assault at university. Charles Sturt University wants to change this unacceptable statistic. We were tasked with making students aware of the university’s zero tolerance policy for any kind of sexual misconduct – to reach 45,000 students spread across 6 campuses up to 1,000 kilometres apart, with a budget of less than USD$15,000.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

Working with leading academics, we put policy into practice and created a new university subject: Subject Zero. Five lessons educated and empowered 45,000 young women and men to: report sexual misconduct, start a confidential conversation with a specialist counsellor, be safe on campus, get consent from a sexual partner, and call out harassment. O Week (that’s what Australians call Orientation Week) was officially renamed Zero Week to launch Subject Zero, turning awareness into action right from students’ first experiences on-campus. Charles Sturt has now begun trialing official Subject Zero lectures, aiming to make them a compulsory, accredited course for all residential students by 2022 – the first university subject with zero tolerance for failure.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Our approach for Subject Zero was to make it as simple as possible for students to engage with sexual conduct education – placing unmissable messages where misconduct is most likely to occur: corridors, dorms, public spaces, bathrooms, and bars. Each lesson contained an empowering call-to-action: “Learn how to…” by scanning the QR code. Throughout the design process we engaged students, academics, and counsellors. We gathered quantitative data from the Australian Human Rights Commission and observational insights from Charles Sturt University’s own Office for Student Safety and Wellbeing. Our target audience, Charles Sturt students, have a median age of 20 and 57% are female. The research tells us that Australians aged 15-24 are the most likely demographic to be both victims and perpetrators of sexual harassment/assault, and this informed our decision to tailor the Subject Zero lessons towards both prevention and response.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Subject Zero was executed as a series of interactive ambient posters, bringing its five lessons beyond the classroom to the places where sexual misconduct is most likely to occur: dorms, public spaces, corridors, bathrooms, and bars. Each poster featured a prominent QR-coded student portrait – created with a custom JavaScript + jQuery compat – that directly linked students to essential education and empowering actions, bringing together existing university support pathways, eLearning modules, web applications, and additional resources under a single, subtle mobile interaction. 600 posters (and counting) were placed around all 6 Charles Sturt campuses – and will remain around campus long-term. Off the back of this success, Charles Sturt has now begun trialing official Subject Zero lectures, aiming to make them a compulsory, accredited course for all residential students by 2022 – the first university subject with zero tolerance for failure.

List the results (30% of vote)

Subject Zero is the most-enrolled subject offered by the university – with every single student pre-enrolled into two Subject Zero eLearning modules: Consent Matters and Healthy Relationships. Subject Zero already has an online attendance of 56,947, a figure that exceeds Charles Sturt’s current student numbers. Extending beyond the university to have an impact in the wider community, it has resulted in a 21% increase in daily site visits to csu.edu.au from the 2020 average. The initiative is resonating with both women and men: ‘Learn how to Report Sexual Misconduct’ was the most-accessed lesson, closely followed by ‘Learn how to Get Consent’. Most importantly, Charles Sturt has now begun trialing official Subject Zero lectures, aiming to make them a compulsory, accredited course for all residential students by 2022 – the first university subject with zero tolerance for failure.

Please tell us about the social behaviour that inspired the work

Charles Sturt University is known and marketed as ‘the university of doing’ in Australia. Their ethos is drawn from the Indigenous Australian Wiradjuri phrase “yindyamarra winhanganha”, meaning “the wisdom of respectfully knowing how to live well in a world worth living in”. This desire to take action to make the world a better place inspired us to transform the university’s zero tolerance policy into a part of their curriculum – educating and empowering every student to act through Subject Zero. Kim Copeland, Director of Charles Sturt University’s Office for Student Safety and Wellbeing says: “Subject Zero embeds the messages of consent and appropriate sexual conduct into the university’s DNA – reflecting our values and our ethos. It’s an education piece that extends well beyond students’ degrees.”