On Tuesday RASA, a new group on campus aiming to raise awareness on sexual assault held a panel due to the recent crime alerts pertaining to sexual violence.
The panel, moderated by Lindsay Bartlett Mosvick, project coordinator for the Violence Prevention, was composed of both sexual assault experts and members of the University’s police department .
The panel included Elizabeth Romary, regional representative for the It’s On Us campaign, a grassroots student-led group launched by the White House to combat sexual assault.
Discussions covered everything from crime alerts to preventative measures that can be taken to help prevent sexual violence.
RASA hold various lectures and programs to help educate college students on relationship violence, stalking , and how to be an active bystander.
“We basically do that through our peer education program through our events,” says Corbin Smith, RASA’s president. “ Our peer education programs is an interview process and once people are selected, they go through an 8-hour training hosted by our faculty advisor, Lindsay,” explained Smith.
The officiers were asked about the recent crime alerts that have been issued by UPD, opening the discussion to what is a crime alert and how are they launched.
“ Honestly we recently have had a few sexual assault incidences that occurred , and that was the reason for the alerts going out to the campus community , along with what steps you could take to stay safe out there,” says Kendall Brown, Lieutenant for Administrative Services.
Thelma Curry, Captain of Support Operations points out that there various different crimes could qualify to be put out as a crime alert such as a burglary, active shooter, or another threat which could jeopardize the safety of students.
“There is no set format for what information goes into a crime alert,” Curry said. “Once that person comes in saying ‘I’ve been assaulted’ we put out the notification.”
However, there is a time limit whther a report will lead to a crime alert or not.
“If they come forward like two three days after the incident, we aren’t going to put out a crme alert,” Brown said.
Darby Hennesey, a Greek Life student asked the panel how to combat the culture of victim blaming on campus.
“Changing societal norms and culture starts with one person and grows out,” answered Romary. Romary went on to point out that contatry to some beliefs, on a national scale the fall semester has the highest rates of sexaul assualt on campuses , due to the incoming of new freshmen and the leftover excitment from summer.
UPD’s Jeffery Kellum discussed a new app called Livesafe with the audience, discussing how useful it can be in a risky situation.
The app will allow the user to view notifications, get in contact with the UPD even if can’t call from where they are, whether that be due to noise or lack of signal.
An audience member asked Officier Brown whether most sexaul assualt cases occur in Fraternity houses. and properties.
“There have been some reports{from fraternities} recently, but we get a lot of reports fro the dorms and other areas,” Brown said.
” Due to these recent alerts combined with the current spring party season, that’s where a rumor like that would start,” Romary said.
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