The University Commons field was covered with little red flags Monday, Oct. 9, as part of the annual Red Flag Campaign, hosted by the CPA’s Wellness Corner.

“It’s all about raising awareness on things like domestic violence, intimate partner violence [and] just toxic relationships in general,” said Samarah Zamora, the graduate assistant of student wellness at the CPA.

Zamora adds that another focus of the campaign is bystander intervention, which is why the red flag exercise is pivotal to the campaign. Participants are provided with red flags and can write negative behaviors that they have experienced or seen in relationships.

Zamora said that displaying these red flags not only spreads awareness of these behaviors, but also allows participants to feel empowered and reclaim their experiences. This is something she said is vital for the student population on a college campus.

(Seneca Rulison/East Tennessean)

“When you’re on a college campus there’s a lot of new things going on,” Zamora said. “It’s not always that our culture teaches us the tools for recognizing red flags or toxicity, and sometimes we even normalize those types of things.”

Even for those who did not participate in the activity, Zamora is optimistic that just witnessing the campaign will be capable of making a difference. She said that just the exposure to the campaign is enough to normalize these conversations, and show witnesses that there are resources available and a large group of people who are working to change the narrative.

Zamora hopes that hosting events like the Red Flag Campaign at ETSU will spark a similar movement within the community.

“I hope that [in the] long term we can kind of pave the way for other communities to also engage in this kind of programming,” Zamora said. “. . . it’s really important that we kind of set that tone for this area and be those leaders to start conversations because I think that’s something that ETSU is really good at.”

(Seneca Rulison/East Tennessean)

As a current graduate student, Zamora has been involved with other universities in the past, but is impressed and inspired by the type of outreach programming that ETSU prioritizes. 

“I can definitely see how, in my past and with my peers, if we had programming like this, it really could have changed some narratives,” Zamora said.

Although this year’s Red Flag Campaign is over, students interested in getting more information on healthy relationships or other topics like consent, sexual violence, STIs, STDs and more can take advantage of the Wellness Corner’s “Keep It Safe and Sexy” seminars.

The KISS seminars are hosted by the wellness ambassadors at the CPA, and are conducted per the request of student groups. There is no minimum number of participants needed to be eligible for a KISS seminar, and the seminars are free of charge to students.

Every KISS seminar can be tailored to fit the needs of the specific group attending, although Zamora said participants can expect each seminar to last about an hour. 

Students interested in scheduling a KISS seminar can send an email to the CPA’s Wellness Corner: wellness@etsu.edu

For more information on the Wellness Corner and the other services it offers, visit www.etsu.edu/students/campusrec/

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