Trinity, Eight Other Schools to Use Funds to Combat Sexual Assault
 
HARTFORD, Conn. – A coalition of nine colleges and universities in Connecticut, including Trinity, has been awarded a $482,000, three-year federal grant to combat sexual assault, date rape, physical and emotional abuse, stalking and other crimes against women on higher education campuses.

The money, which was released October 1 by the Office of Violence Against Women in the U.S. Justice Department, will be divided among the nine schools, with Trinity receiving about $39,000. Southern Connecticut State University is the lead school in the group known as the Connecticut Campus Coalition to End Violence Against Women, of which Trinity has been a member for 12 years.

The other schools are Central, Eastern and Western Connecticut State Universities; the University of Connecticut; Quinnipiac University; the University of Bridgeport; and the University of Hartford. The Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, Inc. (CONNSACS) and the Connecticut Police Academy's Police Officers' Standards and Training Post Council are also active participants.
The coalition, which received a federal grant several years ago, has as its goals to share best practices, strengthen victim response, enhance sexual assault awareness and prevention programs, provide training and fortify efforts to hold assailants accountable through disciplinary procedures and criminal prosecution.

“This is very exciting,” said Laura Lockwood, director of Trinity’s Women & Gender Resource Action Center. “The different schools all have different strengths and this will allow us to learn from each other.” For example, Lockwood said, UConn has a men against violence group, a program that the other colleges and universities might want to emulate.

Each school’s share of the grant is based on the role that it will play over the three years. Trinity will co-chair, along with CCSU, the Sexual Assault Response Team program, otherwise known as SART. Their responsibilities will include hosting a one-day training session for SART Teams and producing three webinars, as well as sexual assault prevention materials.

“Our program is very well established,” said Lockwood. “We have a really solid team of administrators and we’re now training students to promote really effective victim response on campus.”

Trinity’s SART Team, which readers can find out more about on the Web site at www.trincoll.edu/StudentLife/HealthSafety/CampusSafety/SART/default.htm, provides assistance to survivors of sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence and stalking. Assistance can include services such as counseling, advocacy, medical care, academic intervention and referrals. The confidentiality of the victim is preserved “to the greatest extent possible.”

According to Lockwood and other experts in the field, sexual violence is the most under-reported crime on campuses across the country. Only about 5 percent of the women report that they have been the victims of sexual abuse, although data have shown that about one-quarter of all female students will be sexually assaulted at some point in their academic careers. In about two-thirds of the cases, the male and female students know each other.

Asked why women are so loath to come forward, Lockwood explained that there are many reasons, not the least of which is that they don’t want to get their school in trouble; they don’t want to be blamed for the incident; they are reluctant to deal with the repercussions; and they often don’t think that they will be believed.

Lockwood said that one of her key goals is to ensure that female students who have been victimized have all of the information they need to make the choices that are right for them. She also noted that sexual violence against women is something that Trinity takes very seriously. Even when the incidents are not reported to the Hartford Public Department, the male students may be subjected to internal disciplinary hearings.

“There have been a number of expulsions over the years,” she said. “We tend to forget that men have a responsibility too.”

Catherine A. Christy, coordinator of the SCSU Women’s Center, told The New Haven Register that the collaboration will be a valuable tool in addressing the larger societal problem of violence against women.

“College campuses are good places to offer education and awareness programs because they can influence people in a positive way early in their lives,” Christy said. “In turn, this creates a ripple effect with a long-term reduction of such violence in society.”

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