Message From the President

Sept 16, 2015

Our highest priority at Texas A&M is to provide a safe and welcoming campus where our students can grow and develop as leaders. To that end, we are firmly committed to working together on campus and throughout Bryan-College Station.

This includes coming together to prevent and respond to one of the most serious issues of our time: sexual violence. When one of us is harmed through sexual violence, each of us is harmed. Even one such incident is too many.

In recent months, a large number of people from across the campus community—including many students—have identified the best ways to address the critical issue of sexual violence, in terms of both prevention and response.

By working together, the Aggie Family can become a national role model in this area, just as we have in so many others.

I am pleased to let you know that the result of this intensive effort is a major, new, university-wide campaign aimed at sexual violence awareness and prevention, one that we believe will be highly effective given our unique campus culture and Aggie core values of excellence, integrity, leadership, loyalty, respect and selfless service.

The campaign will be our focal point for renewing our sense of urgency, defining our shared vision and shaping a unified, comprehensive path forward.

The Step In. Stand Up campaign will launch today at stepinstandup.tamu.edu, a new, web-based portal that has a wide array of information, advice and resources. Through this, we will be better prepared to "step in" as active participants to reduce the incidence of sexual violence on our campus, and "stand up" against sexual violence through conversations and the sharing of information.

Texas A&M has become one of the largest universities in the country, but through it all, we have remained firm in our belief that "We are the Aggies; the Aggies are we." The Step In. Stand Up campaign provides an action-oriented, unified and strategic approach to help us stay "true to each other, as Aggies can be."

I greatly appreciate all that you do each and every day to make Texas A&M such a great place to live and work, through this and so many other efforts.


MICHAEL K. YOUNG
President