KU’s OneKU Denim Day event links survivor stories, support resources

KU used its OneKU Denim Day program to push past awareness and into action, tying survivor stories to the offices, trainings and campus conversations students and staff can actually use. The April 29 event at the Jayhawk Welcome Center and on Zoom was free, open to KU faculty, staff, students and community members, and backed by 24 co-sponsors across the university and surrounding community.

The program was built around back-to-back screenings of Black Box Diaries and Loud Enough, two films that linked sexual violence in Japan and Kansas through the experiences of Shiori Ito and Madison Smith. KU described Black Box Diaries as an Oscar-nominated documentary by Ito, while Loud Enough followed Smith and her family as they sought accountability after a sexual assault in Kansas. KU also offered a free copy of the Black Box Diaries book while supplies lasted.

After the screenings, KU scheduled a moderated dialogue with Ito, filmmaker Hilary Klotz Steinman, Smith, Smith’s family and detective Justin Boardman. That made the event more than a viewing session. It became a public forum on what survivors face, how institutions respond and where people can turn when they need help.

KU’s Sexual Assault Prevention & Education Center framed the program within Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a national April campaign the university uses for events with students, offices and community partners. The center said KU added a bystander awareness campaign in April 2025 and that more than 5,000 bystanders were trained during the 2025-26 academic year through Jayhawks Give a Flock, a sign that prevention at KU now extends beyond a single day of programming.

The event also featured the Silent Witness Silhouette Project, which KU says honors Kansas victims of sexual and domestic violence and stalking. Each life-sized silhouette represents a person killed by those crimes, turning the exhibit into a visible reminder that the issue reaches far beyond one campus or one story.

For Lawrence and Douglas County, the significance was practical. Denim Day gave community members direct access to KU’s civil rights and Title IX office, prevention education, survivor-centered discussion and resource tables in one place. It also showed how a university can connect reporting options, counseling access and campus safety efforts to broader conversations about accountability, without treating sexual violence as only a campus problem or only a local one.