Students will pledge to encourage anti-violence on campus this week as a part of the Housing and Residential Life’s program to stop on-campus crimes.

The weeklong event, “Enough is Enough,” will include many opportunities where students can get involved in promoting safety on campus.

Miyu Kataoka, a resident adviser at American River Courtyard and junior journalism major, is promoting the event to both students and faculty.

Kataoka said workshops like the Enough is Enough Wall will give students the opportunity to “create visual displays with an anti-violence message.”

“School violence can occur on any campus and we wanted to bring awareness to the anti-violence cause,” Kataoka said.

The week’s events and activities are open to students who live both on- and off-campus. On Monday, students marched from the residence hall quad to the Hinde Auditorium, where they listened to a speech by Jessica Heskin from the Health Center.

The pledge against violence is the students’ promise to not get involved with violence on campus while attempting to prevent it and spread the word around campus promoting safety.

“Enough is Enough” week will start five months after the homicide at American River Courtyard, where a student was killed in his own room.

Scott Hawkins, the 23-year-old Sac State student, was fatally beaten with a baseball bat in his suite. The person suspected in his murder was his roommate, 20-year-old Quran Jones, who is housed at the Sacramento County Jail and is awaiting arraignment.

“We didn’t plan this week just because of the incident last semester, but we wanted to bring awareness that even at Sac State violence happens, and sometimes it is fatal like the one last semester,” Kataoka said.

Richard Song, the residence life coordinator for housing, said Sac State adopted the idea of “Enough is Enough” week from a program created in 2008 by Virginia Tech University’s Vice President of Student Affairs Zenobia Lawrence. The program was started a year after the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech that claimed the lives of 32 people.

Song and the staff at the Housing and Residential Life office have instituted further security throughout the campus, especially surrounding the residence halls. These include security patrol cars and officers patrolling on foot.

“We just want to let the Sac State community know that we are doing everything possible to ensure the safety of the students,” Song said.

Anthony Buono, the assistant director of Housing and Residential Life, said the program is necessary to spread awareness about the potential violence on campus.

“We want students to feel safe on campus,” Buono said. “This event will be a great way to promote safety and eliminate violence on campus.”

Buono hopes to see the positive results from “Enough is Enough” week, which is the first event promoting anti-violence in that area of campus.

Nielsen Gabriel, freshman molecular biology major, said that safety is something that should be promoted in the residence halls, including Sutter Hall where he resides.

“I feel that the event will be very beneficial to students’ well being,” Gabriel said. “Hopefully the message of anti-violence will spread throughout the campus.”

Song said the Housing and Residential Life office’s main goal of this event is to let people know that although violence can happen anywhere, the residence halls are safe for students.

“A lot of students have the mentality of, “This won’t happen to me,'” Kataoka said. “But school violence doesn’t just happen in schools that are far away from us. By bringing awareness, we hope that students realize that this is an issue that is relevant for us all.”

Ricky Alejandro can be reached at [email protected].