Air date change: Penn State to be featured on ABC Nightline special

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State will be featured early Friday morning in an ABC Nightline special segment called “Consent on Campus: A Nightline Event.”

Penn State was approached as a host university by the television network because of the work that the University invested in the President’s Task Force on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment last year and other efforts the University community has taken and continues to take surrounding the topic of sexual assault.

ABC Nightline organized and taped a panel discussion about consensual sex and the national issue of sexual assault on college campuses in front of a student audience on Feb. 10 at Penn State's University Park campus. The ABC special will be featured on Nightline’s Thursday, Feb. 25, late-night broadcast, which airs at 12:35 a.m. EST on Friday, Feb. 26.

The conversation will continue on social media (@Nightline and @penn_state) using the hashtag #ConsentOnCampus.

Moderated by anchor Juju Chang, “Consent on Campus: A Nightline Event” brings together people with unique perspective on this issue. Panelists include Ian Tolino, known on college campuses as “consent bro” for his peer-to-peer education; Tove Danovich, who says she froze up during a sexual assault her freshman year in college; C.D. Mock, a concerned father and a vocal critic of the effectiveness of the consent movement after his son was accused of sexual assault; Kim Lau, a defense attorney who specializes in college disciplinary cases; and Dr. Cheryl Arutt, a clinical psychologist who has been helping sexual assault victims recover from trauma for more than 20 years.

The discussion also included an improv performance called “Sex Signals” from Catharsis Productions, a group that travels the country using humor and improvisation to act out scenarios as a creative and thought-provoking way to teach students about consent.

Since Penn State President Eric Barron endorsed all 18 recommendations presented by the sexual assault task force last year, 10 action steps have been put into place and eight more are in progress. The action steps range from creating new positions and mandatory training, to a climate survey and a required educational programming for all first-year students.