TW: This article discusses topics surrounding sexual assault.
Temple University boasts students who advocate for meaningful change, on and off campus. Many of them, like members of Student Advocates Against Sexual Assault (SAASA), are proud Klein College of Media and Communication students.
SAASA is a Klein College organization, where students spread awareness about sexual assault on college campuses and provide training and educational resources on consent and Title IX.
Some Klein College members take it a step further. Founder of SAASA and former president Ray Epstein, KLN ’25, has co-authored a bill currently in Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives that advocates for sexual assault survivors, and senior journalism major and Communications Chair Chelsea Lubbe’s research on the Red Zone was presented at the 2025 Symposium for Undergraduate Research and Creativity.
Every Voice Bill, co-authored by Epstein and Bella Kwok, senior criminal justice major and current president of SAASA, addresses sexual violence on college campuses. According to a 2017 study, 22% of college students reported experiencing at least on incident of sexual assault. Women and gender nonconforming students experience the highest rates, 28% and 38%, respectively, and 12.5% of men reported instances as well. Epstein and Kwok’s bill hopes to lower those numbers significantly while making sure sexual assault survivors receive the support they need.
“Every Voice Bill is a bipartisan, non-carceral and survivor-centered legislation, written by students and survivors, to address campus sexual violence,” explained Kwok. “The four core components of the bill ensure transparency, expand sexual violence prevention efforts and strengthen survivor-centered support on all college campuses in PA.”
The legislation is sponsored by House District 10 Representative Amen Brown, who serves part of Philadelphia. It’s made up of four main components: a blanket amnesty policy for survivors and witnesses, annual training, creating a Confidential Resource Advisor (CRA) role and state-wide campus climate surveys.
If Every Voice Bill passes, Title IX officers will be unable to retaliate against students reporting sexual assault that includes a Student Conduct Code violation, like drug or alcohol use. This incentivizes both survivors and witnesses to report and seek support without fear of punishment. The annual training is for Title IX officers and ensures support for survivors on campuses is trauma-informed.
A prominent component of Every Voice Bill is the creation and mandating of a CRA. This position is a survivor advocate role that holds a position of confidentiality. A CRA differs from a Title IX officer as Title IX officers are required to report all instances of sexual assault and run the disciplinary process. CRA advisers can guide survivors through all their options, legally and for support, and must obtain the student’s written permission to disclose information to any outside party.
“I’m really excited about the confidential resource advisor section of the bill,” said Emma Wentzel, a senior biology major with a public health minor, Vice President of SAASA and a lobbyist for Every Voice Bill. “It’s such an incredible position, someone who is completely privileged in terms of communication and that one-stop shop for survivors to go in and get the resources that they need and not feel pressured to report if they don’t want to.”
The final component of the legislation is statewide campus climate surveys. These help to identify the prevalence of sexual assault in universities and can lead to the implementation of improved prevention methods and survivor support.
“Surveys that address sexual violence on campuses will seek to reveal why people are under-reporting and don’t feel compelled to report to their institution. Because the prominence of sexual violence is so much higher than the reporting rate,” said Epstein.
It can take up to two years for Every Voice Bill to pass, but that hasn’t slowed Epstein, Kwok and Wentzel’s momentum—much of their time is spent meeting with legislators to receive bipartisan feedback and support. Getting this legislation passed is crucial for updating PA campuses’ policies on sexual assault, and it centers survivor and student voices, something essential for Epstein.
“We never ask students truly how they feel. We’ve been, for the past 30 years, operating in very similar ways in terms of handling sexual violence,” said Epstein. “And the rate of sexual violence has not changed one bit. It’s not reduced, even though there’s a much higher common awareness of it.”
Every Voice Bill not only could lead to further legislation for sexual assault survivors but also forces universities to be transparent about incidents on their campus and hold themselves accountable for protecting their students.
“I could see this really drastically influencing universities' willingness to engage in Pennsylvania with survivor support and with changes, because they’re going to want to reduce a number that’s real, rather than prevent us from seeing a number that’s not real,” said Epstein.
Wentzel explains that it’s easy to feel small when tackling a massive issue like sexual assault, but seeing the legislation reach House consideration has been incredibly rewarding. Though Every Voice Bill was just recently introduced into the PA House, its writing was three years in the making, with Kwok mainly at the center.
“I am extremely proud of my team and I for our resilience throughout the past few years, and it feels absolutely amazing to know that my work on this bill will create a better campus culture for student survivors today—and in the future—across Pennsylvania,” said Kwok. “I truly believe that this bill will address many crucial gaps, gaps that leave student survivors unprotected.”
Every Voice Bill demonstrates the impact of universities engaging with sexual assault policies and research, something Lubbe also hoped to prove with her work investigating the Red Zone.
“If administrators support survivors in more ways than what they see legislatively, it’s going to not only make students feel more secure in talking about this issue of sexual violence in their own circles, it’ll remind them that this is a normal thing that happens, which is unfortunate, but the only way to combat this type of violence is to call out the elephant in the room,” said Lubbe.
The Red Zone is the period during a college freshman’s first half of their first semester when they are more likely to experience sexual assault. Over 50% of all sexual assaults on college campuses occur during this time frame, coinciding with back-to-school parties and fraternity rush events.
For Lubbe, increased research and conversations surrounding this topic are essential for mitigating its impact.
“It’s a subject that matters to me because it’s entirely preventable if given accommodations from the universities,” said Lubbe. “Like, if our university were more in tune and aware of what was going on, this is a whole period that equates to more people being susceptible to rape. I don’t think it’s an impossible task to overcome.”
Lubbe originally wrote an investigative piece on the Red Zone while the 2025 Undergraduate Symposium for Research and Creativity was accepting submissions. She saw the importance of discussing this topic in front of her peers at Temple and decided to apply.
When Lubbe saw that she was accepted into the symposium, she said she felt “nauseous. I got nauseous really quickly."
She didn’t feel confident in her ability to discuss such a sensitive topic in a room filled with people. However, she saw it as an opportunity to share information on an issue that must be talked about.
“We’re having an open conversation, and it’s not scary. It’s not intimidating,” said Lubbe. “It’s just something that I think is important, that we as a university [should talk] about, and everybody should know about it.”
After presenting her research, Lubbe felt confident in her work as a journalist, and it motivated her to continue doing work like this in the future. If it wasn’t for SAASA, Lubbe wouldn’t even have known that survivor’s advocacy on this level was possible.
“Being involved in SAASA, I would love to continue that work. I have no idea how that would come into fruition for the rest of my career, but sexual assault advocacy is something that means a lot to me,” said Lubbe. “It’s very dear to me, and I think that it takes victims every single day, and I don’t think it should, and I think having conversations about it is really beneficial.”
The organization has only been active for the past four years but has already made a surmountable impact on Temple’s campus. Members of SAASA have forged lasting friendships and made significant strides toward survivor care and advocacy.
“I’ve made friends for life, and this is certainly a legacy that I always kind of want to be a part of,” said Wentzel.
If you or someone you know is a victim of sexual assault, visit the Wellness Resource Center to learn your options for confidential reporting and legal options.