UMass wants to help students learn to prevent sexual assault on campus
AMHERST – On the same day President Barack Obama announced an initiative to address sexual assault on college campuses, University of Massachusetts officials announced its own plan to tackle the problem.
The second phase of the UMatter@UMass community-building program announced Wednesday is emphasizing the importance of becoming an active bystander to stop sexual assault.
Using posters, videos and training sessionss, the campus is making it clear it wants to prevent assault. According to a press release, about 25 percent of female students report they have been victims of rape or attempted rape.
In October of 2012, a UMass freshman was allegedly raped on campus by four teens who were visiting.
The initiative is employing what it is calling the “Three Ds” — Direct, Distract and Delegate — to guide the actions of anyone who may witness a sexual assault or an instance in which an assault is threatened,” according to the release.
“Direct” refers to direct responses to dangerous behavior in a clear, but non-confrontational way. “Distract” teaches techniques of diverting actions before they become harmful. “Delegate” is the path to take when a person hoping to prevent bad behavior needs help from an acquaintance or from health or law enforcement professionals.
Each technique will have a supporting video on the UMatter@UMass website at www.umass.edu/umatter using student actors to demonstrate the strategies
Enku Gelaye, interim vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life, and one of the campus leaders working on the program, said they have been saturating the environment with posters and messages so everywhere students turn they are reminded of the message that UMass wants a safe campus and what they can do to help.
Harry Rockland-Miller, director of the Center for Counseling and Psychological Health, has also been one of the campaign’s leaders.
They have already provided programs for faculty and staff and training for about 1,200 students and 450 on-campus resident assistants and residence directors. This way the resident assistants can continue working with the students on their respective floors, she said.
In the fall, the training will be provided to all incoming students, she said.
They are also using videos some of which were shown last April at Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan’s Sexual Assault Prevention Campaign held at Hampshire College. Sullivan is one of the partners in the UMass campaign along with the Title IX coordinator and Tile IX team.
Gelaye said that UMass students produced and acted in the videos and they received permission to localize them to the UMass campus. And they created a third. The videos feature student actors directed to educate fellow students about what’s OK and not OK and how to become an active bystander.
Gelaye said they want to “make a difference…we put our heads together (to figure out) how we can make a difference. The reality is I’m not in those environments.” But she wants to give the students what they need to ensure the campus is safe. “We need to give people hard skills they can use to prevent trouble in real-world situations.
The UMatter@UMass active bystander program provides both the climate and the real-world skills,” she said in a statement.
“UMatter@UMass is a campus-wide initiative that encourages all of us to be active bystanders and to participate in the effort to create a caring and compassionate campus community,” said Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy in a statement.
“Together we can create a caring campus culture and a firmer commitment to each other and our educational goals.”
The White House report released Wednesday called "Rape and Sexual Assault: A Renewed Call to Action," says that 1 in 5 women have been sexually assaulted at college but that only 1 in 8 student victims report the assault.
"No one is more at risk of being raped or sexually assaulted than women at our nation's colleges and universities," said the report by the White House Council on Women and Girls.
The Associated Press reported that Obama gave the task force, comprised of administration officials, 90 days to come up with recommendations for colleges to prevent and respond to the crime, increase public awareness of each school's track record and enhance coordination among federal agencies to hold schools accountable if they don't confront the problem.