NIU’s Sexual Assault Task force is sharing the $340 cost of printing a poster that is spurring nationwide interest.

Blanche McHugh, task force director, said the force is helping fund the printing of 1,000 copies of a poster designed by NIU’s Interfraternity and Panhellenic Councils for Sexual Assault Awareness week, Oct. 10 through 14.

Jeff Cufaude, NIU activities adviser, said the councils have designed a “graphic poster to stimulate discussion” and sexual assault awareness on campus.

He said copies of the poster have been sent to fraternity and sorority headquarters across the United States, and several of the headquarters have indicated an interest in obtaining additional copies.

He said if the posters’ popularity continues, more copies might have to be printed.

A few copies of the poster already were pinned up around campus, but they quickly disappeared. Cufaude said students liked the posters so much they took them as soon as they went up.

McHugh said the task force will help distribute 500 of the posters on Oct. 1. She said the remaining 500 will be distributed in the spring.

Cufaude said he does not want to put up all of the posters too early. “People might take them all before Sexual Assault Awareness week,” he said.

The posters depict a man holding his hand over a woman’s mouth with the message, “‘No’ never means ‘yes.’ ‘No’ means ‘not interested,’ not ‘yes’ … not even ‘maybe.’ Respect your partner’s wishes. Against her will is against the law.”

McHugh said the poster addresses the problem of acquaintance-rape rather than stranger-rape because NIU has more instances of “date rape.”

The picture on the poster was taken directly from a scene in the movie “Dressed to Kill,” Cufaude said. He said Chuck Gniech, an NIU painting graduate assistant, distorted the photo to give it a more powerful effect.

In conjunction with the poster and the awareness week, Kappa Delta sorority will sponsor a program titled “No Never Means Yes” at 7 p.m. in the Holmes Student Center Skyroom on Oct. 12. The program will feature a speech by Margaret Bassett from Safe Passage.

Michelle Cox, a member of Kappa Delta, said Safe Passage is Kappa Delta’s local philanthropy. Safe Passage, located in Chicago, offers shelter and counseling for abused wives and their children.

McHugh said other future task force projects include the possible endorsement of NIU’s Late Night Ride Service. She said the service already has advertised that the task force is endorsing it, but the force has not agreed to do so yet.

“We want to understand it more before we do any endorsing,” McHugh said. She said the service also has advertised with an emphasis on stranger-rape awareness, which conflicts with the task force’s emphasis on acquaintance-rape awareness.

McHugh said the force also will be contacting other universities across the United States to research their methods of combating sexual assault.