In an attempt to continue ongoing efforts to raise awareness of sexual assault, a student-activist group ran a second pilot Snapchat filter during the Michigan vs. Wisconsin men’s basketball game at the Kohl Center Tuesday night.
The filter read, “Badgers Get Consent” and was created by UW-Madison junior Lana Scholtz.
Ella Sklaw, Tyriek Mack, Justine Jones and Marisa Skelley received approval from the administration last semester to run a new Snapchat filter one weekend per month in dining halls, residence halls and both unions on campus. They previously ran a pilot filter during “Halloweekend” last October.
The students’ filter in October was used over 1,000 times and viewed nearly 20,000 times. However, they said they believe the conversation on sexual consent should not stop after the weekend or outside of student housing.
“Ideally, it would be at all Badger games hitting the same students, new students and new people, not only students,” Sklaw said. “This is not only a problem that affects students, and it’s an interesting platform to use if we can get it funded.”
The filters cost between $25 and $50 and Tuesday’s pilot relied solely on donations and out-of-pocket funding. For future initiatives, the group is trying to the gain the support of Wisconsin Athletics to help run a new filter during all Badger games.
Although the filter was not used as frequently during the game as in October, the group said the filter still acts as a public service announcement.
“We want people to use it, but seeing it still works the same as when you scroll on filters and see an ad,” Sklaw said. “It’s marketing an idea.”
The Kohl Center can hold over 17,000 people, who all could access the filter.
The students are hoping to run the first fully-funded another filter, which was created by recent UW-Madison graduate Allie Geise, next weekend, with long-term goals still in mind. According to Sklaw, the administration hopes to run a filter during the Mifflin Street Block Party in May, intending to reach a large number of people at once.
“The way it runs now is good but it caters to a majority of freshmen,” Sklaw said. “It really only reaches one demographic, but there is also another 30,000 students not living in dorms or on campus who we want to reach on this topic.”
UPDATE Jan. 19, 7:09 p.m. This story was updated to correctly name the creators of the Snapchat filters.
