Grant would implement preventative measures in the sexual assault policy
(The Beacon)
By Elizabeth Vogel, Staff Writer -- vogel11@up.edu
On March 31, the University of Portland applied for a federal grant that would provide funds to implement a preventative approach in UP's sexual assault policy.
Martin Monto, professor of behavioral and social sciences, and Kristina Houck, a counselor in the Health Center, spearheaded the move to apply for the grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). If UP is awarded the grant, funds would go toward educating students about sexual assault and ways they can intervene in situations where they recognize a potential assault.
While sexual assault has long been an issue on campuses nationwide, UP's grant application is especially timely: Last week, the Office of Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education sent an 18-page letter to UP and all other schools receiving federal funds to remind them of their obligations under Title IX to proactively combat and investigate sexual assault on and off campus and provide resources for victims.
"I've never been more optimistic about our ability to address this issue," Monto said.
Monto researched what he calls the "bystander effect" in cases of sexual assault. He said people who witness a possible sexual assault want to help, but are unsure how.
"Students are hesitant to intervene because sexual behavior is seen as private," he said.
Many cases of sexual assault occur off campus in unsupervised settings where the only people who can intervene are other students, according to Monto.
"My research shows that students all really believe they should intervene," he said.
The grant application, which proposes a prevention program based on bystander intervention, indicated a need to increase reporting through training, publicity and reviewing UP's sexual assault policy, in addition to increasing services for victims, according to Monto. UP would work with the Portland Women's Crisis Line and the Portland Police Bureau.
"We all are potential bystanders and have the ability to notice situations that could lead to violence," Houck said in an email. "Given the appropriate education to increase our awareness of these situations and to develop skills on ways to intervene, we have the ability to significantly reduce the incidence of violence on our campus and in our community."
Monto said UP's current sexual assault policy is up to standards, but the proposed changes would make UP more proactive than reactive.
"The policy is pretty consistent with OVW expectations, but there is room for improvement," he said.
The OCR sent out an 18-page letter to UP and all other federally funded institutions clarifying what should be included in a sexual assault policy. The letter spelled out specific expectations and reminders, including the fact that an institution is responsible for investigating all reports of sexual assault involving students regardless of if they occurred on or off campus, that an alleged victim should not be forced to face the accused and that reports should be addressed in a timely manner.
According to Natalie Shank, assistant director of Residence Life, UP's policy addresses all of those issues.
The letter also stated that the sexual assault policy and resources for victims should be readily available to everyone.
UP has held events to raise awareness about sexual assault. Last spring, UP hosted its first ever Sexual Assault Awareness Week. Last fall, the Peer Health Educators facilitated an awareness week.
"The Peer Health Educators (PHEs) facilitated a Sexual Assault and Harassment Awareness week in November of this academic year in the hopes of getting a better turnout to events than was achieved last spring," Houck said.
Sophomore PHE Carly Parish was pleased with the attendance to the awareness week in November. The PHEs want to put on another sexual assault awareness week next year.
"We want to make most of our events annual, but we don't know if it will be in the fall or the spring," Parish said.
Part of the grant would go toward raising awareness about sexual assault on campus.
"There would be repeating and recurring awareness on campus," Monto said.
If UP is not awarded the grant, it will still go forward with the plans laid out in the grant application.
"We are hopeful we will win the grant; we won't know until next fall," Houck said. "Whether we win the grant or not, we are committed to increasing bystander education on campus, believing that it plays a critical role in the prevention of violence."
More Information:
For more Information on UP's Sexual Assault Policy visit: www.up.edu/judicial and click on the link to University Policy and Community Standards.
For more information on OCR's letter visit: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/dcl-factsheet-201104.html.
For more information about the OVW campus grant visit: www.ovw.usdoj.gov and click on the link for OVW Grant Programs.
