SEAHO Report - Winter 2014 - (Page 22)

SEAHO Features Unblurring the Lines By Rachel Jernigan, University of South Alabama In a society where sex sells everything from hamburgers to websites and Robin Thicke croons a lyric such as "I know you want it, you're a good girl," it's safe to say we have an obsession with sex. One particular issue facing college administrators today is the prevalence of sexual assault on college campuses. To provide a rundown of the statistics, it is important to realize that one in four women between the ages of 18 and 24 will experience sexual assault before leaving college. Another statistic that shocks students is that one sexual assault occurs every 25 minutes, or for a typical class period of 50 minutes, two women or men will become a victim and a survivor of the ultimate crime of control all in the same moment. Many people believe that sexual assault is about sex. I have some news, it's not. The most common type of sexual assault is about power and control. Most perpetrators do not orgasm or ejaculate. Shocking, right? The perpetrator of the crime has no intention of seeking sexual satisfaction. This person wants to exert his/her power over someone else, and the easiest path to do so is to get someone alone and force the way sexually, whether it be through intercourse, sexual touching, oral sex, or any other sexual contact. Another disturbing fact about this epidemic on our campuses is that the most vulnerable time for female students is in the fall semester of their freshman year in the months leading up to that first major break such as Thanksgiving. This really should not surprise us because those are the months when parties are held, and freshmen women are targeted for recruitment into different organizations and some experience things for the first time such as having alcohol, living in the same building or hallway with the opposite sex, or even dating. Since these are new experiences, our students need someone to teach them what boundaries are, and how to set them, not to mention what is and is not healthy in a relationship. At the University of South Alabama, we have a program that does just that. It is a six week initiative where a small group discussion is had with young women about sexual assault, domestic violence, healthy relationships, boundary-setting, and self-defense. Called Girls Night Out, it is a partnership between Housing & Residence Life, University Programs, and Counseling Services to educate and engage women in their first semester on the topics listed above. As an intern with the University Programs department as well as a Community Director in Housing & Residence Life, I was able to coordinate, facilitate and witness this program as it was carried out. In our city of Mobile, Alabama, we are fortunate to have a Rape Crisis Center with whom we work closely; as such, we have the director and her volunteers come in to lead the discussions with 10-15 first-time students per group. This program has been in effect for several years and as such, we estimate we have been able to reach over 1,000 young women. We also have a one-night counterpart event for male students called The Bro Code. On this evening, we have twelve campus leaders, which vary from professors to graduate students to fraternity leaders, who hold small group discussions about sexual assault and bystander intervention. In the past, this program has not been as successful as Girls Night Out, but this year we saw a change in that pattern. This is due to the fact that we strategically targeted our fraternity population as well as the different ROTC branches. In doing so, we were able to have 90 of our campus leaders educated about this important topic. Through both of these programs, we learned that students are best engaged about these topics in a discussion forum rather than a mass assembly. We also found that compared to last year; our event for male leaders was most effective because the facilitators were male. Another important part of the male event is that the discussions and overall approach were from a bystander intervention avenue rather than a blame game in which fingers are pointed at the male students and they are told to simply not assault. This approach was much more effective because it allowed for open and honest discussion between the facilitators and students; it also created a less defensive response from the male students. For the possibly uninformed, bystander intervention is when we train students to be aware of what is going on 22 SEAHO Report Winter 2014

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SEAHO Report - Winter 2014