Hello, and welcome to this segment of “From My Notepads.” As the fall 2014 semester
draws to a close, I want to take this opportunity to speak about an issue that has been a topic
of conversation on campus throughout the fall. At the start of the semester, we made the
decision to take an expanded approach to notifying our students, faculty and staff about sexual
assaults reported on campus. Across colleges and universities, sexual assault is an extremely
underreported crime. Through this process we notified you about four campus sexual assaults
that were reported during the fall term. These safety notices were created in an effort to
enhance awareness related to safety, education, risk reduction, and reporting options. These
notices included information about the specific incidents, safety tips, and information about
the Clery Act, which requires universities to notify the campus community of certain
criminal activities.
This communication with our community is one aspect of a more comprehensive and proactive
campus approach regarding sexual violence. We believe it is important to be open and
transparent.
Conversations about sexual violence and safety will continue during the spring 2015 semester.
Dr. Joe Sherlin, Vice President for Student Affairs, has charged a standing Sexual Misconduct
Leadership Team to head a campus-wide effort that will focus on education and training,
response and support, policy review, and overall campus climate. Our efforts in the spring
will include the development of expanded sexual violence education for entering students,
a campus climate assessment related to sexual violence, student leader training on bystander
intervention, and a major campus event focused on sexual violence prevention. We will also
continue the education and outreach efforts that we have provided to our students through
trainings and workshops on this issue each semester. We are committed to bring ongoing
and systemic focus to these critical concerns.
Some you may not have met Kate Emmerich. She works in the Counseling Center here at ETSU
and leads our OASIS program, which stands for Outreach and Advocacy: Sexual Information
for Students. I’ve asked Kate to join me today to talk about the issue of sexual violence
and more specifically the work she's doing here ETSU.
Kate, thanks for joining me, and talk to me a little bit about sexual violence across
college campuses nationally.
Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Dr. Noland. Really important statistics for students and
faculty and staff to know –one in four to one in five women do experience rape or attempted
rape during their college career. One in 33 men experience the same thing. Nine out of
10 of these instances are committed by an acquaintance or a date or a friend, not by
a stranger. I think that's really important for the campus community and the community
to understand, with the fear that has been expressed about hearing about all these reports
on campus. This is not a stranger in the bushes who is repeatedly perpetrating a crime with
a weapon or using force; these situations are much more personal, and oftentimes, it’s
happening with someone who is trusted.
You mentioned earlier that one out of four to one out of five young women across this
country are victims of sexual assault. How did the trends that we've seen on our campus
compare or are they dissimilar to what you see nationally?
I would say that nothing has changed on this campus at all and in the past semester except
for the way that this campus is responding to the issue. I think that an increase in
reports is actually a positive thing, from my perspective, because what that is saying
is that this campus is communicating to students that there is somewhere that they can go to
do that. So they have more knowledge about where they can access those resources and
also hopefully, they understand it it's a safe place to do that. And so, a lot of times,
you know, the reaction tends to be, “There’s an increase in reporting. What's going on?
Is there an increase in danger or an increase in sexual assaults?” But if Senator McCaskill,
who is a senator in Missouri, who is very involved in the sexual assault movement with
the Obama administration in the White House, what she has said is you don't need to be
worried about the schools that have students reporting; you need to be worried about the
schools that don't. Because what that says – it doesn't say that there aren't any reports
or that there aren't any assaults, because we know that one in four to one in five women
and one in 33 men do experience this. What it says is that maybe the students don't know
where to go or it's not being made transparent. So I think that the steps that this university
is taking are actually making the campus a safer place and a more supportive place for
students, and so what we're seeing is actually an improvement.
Talk a little bit about this fall on campus. We've been intentional with our change in
reporting, but could you talk a little bit about some of the things that we're doing
on campus this fall and some of the things that are planned for the spring?
Absolutely. In my job as the OASIS coordinator, a lot of the work that I do is supporting
individual students who come and report that they have been assaulted, and so it's also
important for students to know that the Counseling Center, or any counseling center on campus,
is a safe place that people can come and report, and we are bound by confidentiality so doesn't
have to go to Public Safety or Student Affairs unless the student wants it to. They also
have an option anonymous reporting, so if they don't want their name to be identified
by anybody or the name of the potential perpetrator then they have the option of letting Student
Affairs or Public Safety know about that, so that we can have more accurate statistics
about how often this is actually happening without someone feeling like they're putting
themselves into the spotlight. So that's something that has been ongoing and that this campus
has been working on for a while now. Additionally, we offer trainings, workshops, classroom presentations
and all sorts of campus outreach events on every semester here ETSU. But additionally,
what has recently happened is we had consolidated a task force between Student Affairs and the
Counseling Center and other areas of the university in order to update our sexual misconduct policy,
and that was implemented at the beginning of this fall so students can go to the ETSU
Violence-Free Web page and they can get all sorts of information about the resources here
on campus and in the community for someone who has potentially been sexually assaulted,
or knows someone who has been sexually assaulted or harassed.
So, if you had a piece of advice for our undergraduate students, what would that piece of advice
be? My advice would be to get as much education
as you possibly can. Come find me, come find anybody on campus that you know is presenting
this information, because at OASIS, we believe that education is empowerment. And so, when
students have information about what a healthy sexual relationship looks like, what a healthy
relationship encounter looks like, that is the way that we can combat things like relationship
violence and sexual violence. And a lot of students
don't understand what that looks like. A lot of students, when they hear the word “rape,”
think “a stranger in the bushes,” not potentially someone coercing them into doing
something – someone who they've already invited into their apartment or dorm. So the
kind of information like learning the components of consent, and learning how to communicate
with someone, and learning how to have a safe sexual encounter –
that helps to prevent sexual assaults.
So, as you look at our campus this fall,
what are we doing differently than other institutions in the country, and as we turn to the spring,
where we're going to be very proactive and deliberate in education, training, wellness,
healing, and a lot of initiatives will launch forward – what are some of the things that
we can look forward to in the spring? So two questions: What do we look like this fall,
and what would you like us to see develop in the spring?
Absolutely. I've actually been really impressed with ETSU and I feel like we are kind of a
step ahead of everything. So, the sexual misconduct policy was implemented this fall. Obama sent
out a task force recently to address this issue, because this is a country-wide problem;
this is not just a problem at ETSU. The danger is no higher here than it is at any other
college campus. But it is a problem, and so President Obama has set out a task force to
look at different colleges and universities and what they are needing to do to improve
the climate and to improve addressing this issue. But in one of the things that they
said that they would like to see is for campuses to have updated sexual misconduct policy.
Well, we’ve already done that. So this is something that we've been taking seriously
before these things have started to come up. And additionally, we have in the spring a
campus climate survey for the entire campus – another recommendation from Obama's task
force that isn’t required until next spring, probably, but we're doing it now, because
we know that that's really important. We also have a training module for all incoming freshmen
starting in January. That's also really important because what that does is communicates this
information – at least the basic information about consenting about healthy relationships
and about being an active bystander – as soon as a student enters college here, so
they can’t begin the university experience at ETSU without some of this information.
And then we'll engage similar training opportunities for student leaders and for existing student
organizations on campus, correct? That is correct, yes, and what we also have
is, in late January, we're bringing in a major speaker on who is really skilled in men's
leadership training, and so they will be doing a keynote that is open to the university and
community, but what they also be doing is they will be doing a training with identified
male leader students on campus and because we believe that what's really important is
engaging men in this issue, and we think that male leaders have a really strong, positive
role in engaging other men on campus. I want to thank you for what you do for our
institution. And to our students, to our faculty, to our parents, in closing, if you look at
crime statistics from across the South, we remain one of the safest institutions in the
region. Our safety notices and the changes that we've deliberately made this semester
are part of our work that will continue throughout the spring and beyond to institute further
steps to ensure that we continue to be a safe community for everyone who calls ETSU home.
If we stand united as a campus community against this issue together, we can bring about change.
I hope that everyone has a fantastic close to the fall semester and that you enjoy the
time away during the holidays for renewal and reflection. To everyone, Godspeed, and
happy holidays.