For Raymond Musiima, a second-year MBA student in Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, the fight against relationship violence and sexual misconduct, or RVSM, is not just a professional interest — it’s personal. It’s purposeful. And now, it’s global.
His sister, a student at Makerere University in Uganda, studies in a system where gaps in policies and entrenched stigma make speaking out about sexual violence challenging. Though she has not been directly affected, witnessing the silence that surrounds survivors in her community was enough to stir something in Musiima.
“That silence stuck with me,” Musiima says. “I knew something had to change, and I started wondering if there was a way to connect what I was learning at MSU with what was needed back home.”
Championing prevention from the top
Drawing on his international experience and personal connection to Makerere University, Musiima began to imagine how MSU’s RVSM prevention and response models could inform, and be informed by, global approaches to student safety.
Musiima’s vision began to take shape in the fall of 2024 when campus leaders heard about his idea for a global collaboration between MSU and other universities. The RVSM Expert Advisory Workgroup and MSU’s Office for Civil Rights and Title IX Education and Compliance, or OCR, immediately saw more than a cross-cultural exchange but an opportunity to champion this effort in support of Musiima.
“This work is deeply personal to so many of us,” says Laura Rugless, vice president of OCR, and the university’s Title IX coordinator. “When we think about institutional leadership, we have to ask ourselves, ‘Are we showing up for those who need us? Are we building systems that reflect care and courage?’”
Rugless helped bring together a team from MSU that included Kelly Schweda, executive director of the Prevention, Outreach and Education department, known as POE, within the Office for Civil Rights; and Michael Allensworth, POE’s director of employee and graduate student programs. Together, with Musiima’s help, they designed a multiday workshop series to be delivered on the ground at Makerere University in Uganda.
What began as a conversation quickly evolved into a full-fledged collaboration — one that would span continents, disciplines and time zones.
Building bridges through MSU’s leadership
Musiima was already connected to MSU’s International Studies and Programs and had independently been invited to join the university’s RVSM Expert Advisory Workgroup, co-chaired by Stephanie Anthony and Carrie Moylan, advisors to the MSU president. The workgroup advises the president on best practices and makes recommendations about trauma-informed policies and programs to ensure that MSU is responsive to survivors. As a graduate assistant to the workgroup, Musiima had a front-row seat to how institutional change could be achieved through thoughtful, inclusive dialogue and coordinated leadership.
“MSU has made monumental progress in a short period of time,” Musiima says. “Their ability to turn a painful past into a model of prevention and accountability is inspiring. I knew Makerere could learn from this and vice versa.”
Musiima helped connect the workgroup and Office for Civil Rights with International Studies and Programs to form a united effort. With support from the Alliance for African Partnership, or AAP, the team secured funding and moved quickly to co-develop the program with partners at Makerere.
Collaborating with colleagues in Uganda
In September and October 2024, the MSU team — Rugless, Schweda and Allensworth — traveled to Uganda to co-lead the workshops alongside Musiima and Makerere faculty. The sessions brought together students, staff and senior leaders to explore how institutions can create safer campuses, even within restrictive legal and cultural environments.
The workshops included:
- Scenario-based bystander engagement training using MSU’s five-step model
- Title IX and civil rights policy navigation adapted for international frameworks
- Prevention strategy design tailored for Makerere’s institutional structure
- Survivor-centered response planning for frontline staff and student leaders
- Faculty and staff dialogue sessions to build collaboration across departments
“What surprised me the most was how instantly and deeply connected I felt to the colleagues we had only met through Zoom,” Rugless reflects. “Even now, months later, I think about their stories, their strength and their vision, and I feel more committed than ever to this work.”
But the exchange wasn’t one-sided. The MSU team also learned from Makerere’s challenges: limited resources, legal restrictions that prevent proactive intervention, and pervasive victim-blaming that discourages reporting.
“Victim-blaming is so normalized in some communities that survivors don’t even see what happened to them as a violation,” says Euzobia M. Mugisha Baine, acting director of Makerere’s Gender Mainstreaming Directorate, a unit at Makerere University dedicated to promoting gender equity and inclusion across all university policies, programs, and practices. “That’s why education is so powerful — it gives people a different language, a different lens.”
The importance of sharing knowledge to make change
MSU’s leadership in RVSM prevention was forged through hard lessons. Following national scrutiny and community outcry, the university has steadily invested in building a prevention framework that is now considered one of the most comprehensive in the country. Led by Schweda and the POE team, MSU now trains thousands of students annually in sexual assault prevention, bystander intervention and trauma-informed care.
“True progress comes not just from acknowledging past failures, but from actively building up a culture of prevention, outreach and education,” says Schweda. “What’s happening at MSU today is a reflection of what’s possible when a university commits fully to change.”
With interest already growing from other African institutions, MSU’s prevention model will next be featured at the 2025 AAP Summit in Malawi, in partnership with Soma Chaudhuri of MSU’s Center for Gender in Global Context.
“The ripple effect of this work is already real,” Allensworth adds. “It’s opening doors and changing lives across borders.”
For Musiima, the work remains grounded in his initial motivation: creating something better for students like his sister, and for every student whose story goes unheard.
“This isn’t just a project or an assignment,” he says. “It’s about helping create systems where students — no matter where they are in the world — can learn in environments that are safe, supportive and just.”
As graduation nears, Musiima plans to carry this mission forward, working at the intersection of business, policy and social impact to help organizations and institutions become more equitable, accountable and inclusive.
His journey is not just one of global engagement. It’s a reflection of what happens when lived experience meets leadership, and when one student’s spark becomes the start of something far greater.
With support from OCR, ISP and AAP, the MSU-Makerere partnership has laid the foundation for long-term impact. There’s more work to be done—and more voices to include—but for Musiima and the team, the commitment is unwavering.
“This is what institutional courage looks like,” says Rugless. “It’s not just about compliance. It’s about connection, community and leading with heart.”
As Sexual Assault Awareness Month reminds us, creating change means doing the hard, hopeful work—together.
