About the Campus Violence Prevention Project
Program Overview
In October 2005, Tufts University received a fourth grant award from the Office on Violence Against Women, Department of Justice, to fund the Tufts University Campus Violence Prevention Project. Starting in October 1999, each of the grants was for a two-year period and the funding will continue through the fall of 2006.
The focus areas are sexual assault and rape, relationship violence, and stalking. The goals of the Project include coordinating our on-campus victim services and fostering relationships with off-campus providers, reviewing and rewriting protocols and procedures, training police officers, educating students, staff, and faculty members, and reviewing our on-campus judicial processes.
The project director is Peggy Barrett, Director of the Women's Center. The members of the Executive Committee for the Project are Michelle Bowdler, Director of Health Service, Lisa Coleman, Director of the Africana Center, and Yolanda King, Director of Residential Life and Learning.
Coordination of on-campus victim services, fostering relationships with off-campus providers, and reviewing and rewriting protocols and procedures
Representatives of on-campus service providers meet monthly to review protocols about responding to victims of violence, upgrading procedures and services, and coordinating services. Participating offices include Health Service, Counseling Center, Public Safety, Residential Life, Women's Center, Dean of Students Office, Undergraduate Education, and Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention. This year the committee is chaired by Janna Behrens, Undergraduate Education, and Marisel Perez, Dean of Students Office. Throughout the process of educating staff and upgrading our policies and procedures, the committee members have used the expertise of staff members from our two community partners: the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) and the BIDMC Center for Violence Prevention and Recovery. Another service that the Policies and Procedures Committee oversees is the Student Sexual Assault Response Assistants (SSARA), a student-staffed, 24/7, hotline for student victims of sexual assault, rape, relationship violence, and stalking.
Training police officers
The Campus Violence Prevention Project has partially funded an Investigator for the TUPD. The TUPD leadership spearheaded a systematic review of TUPD policies and procedures about sexual assault, rape, domestic violence and stalking. A new Stalking and Criminal Harassment policy was completed. Domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault procedure guidelines and packets were put in place to assist officers who takes the preliminary reports. The leadership of TUPD has focused on increasing the education and training of the police officers about sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking. Tufts hosted a Sexual Assault and Sex Crimes Investigation State Certification Course in August 2003.
Education of students, staff, and faculty
At present, we have one full-time Violence Prevention Education Coordinator, Elaine Theodore, one half-time educator, Alonso Nichols, and one half-time program coordinator, Sue Gilbert, who design and provide education as part of the project. A committee of interested student affairs professionals meets several times a semester. Currently, the offices represented on the committee are: Residential Life, LGBT Center, Africana Center, Student Activities, Athletics, Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, TUPD, and the Women's Center.
This year, our focus has been on creating a campus-wide campaign and raising awareness about the Campus Violence Prevention Project among students. We try to work with students within their own sub-cultures based on backgrounds or interests in order to present information and build leadership skills within specific student populations. The goals of the original grant project were to design educational materials for students with a focus on four populations. These communities were chosen because of the lack of materials that used imagery or messages that would appeal to members. Teams created workshop outlines, posters, websites, and brochures to address the specific cultural issues that might have an impact on students' behavior with respect to violence against women.
Examples of student groups with whom we have worked:
- Africana
- Asian and Asian American
- Latino
- Lesbian, bisexual, trans communities
- Athletes
- Greek community
- First-year women
- International Students
- Arts Community
We have a special focus on working with men. Some of the ways we are looking to involve men:
- Black Men's Group
- Latino Men's Group
- Asian/Asian American Men's Group
- Fraternity men
- Partnership with Men's Group at LGBT Center
- Programming specific to men's issues with violence, stereotyping, and alcohol and drug use
- Other educational programming, by grant staff and regular Tufts staff, occurring on campus include speaking in courses, training residential staff, and responding to other speaking requests from campus groups. DOS staff plans an orientation program for all incoming students.
Reviewing on-campus judicial processes
Veronica Carter and Yves-Rose SaintDic have compared the Tufts Student Judicial Process with many different school processes. The results are outlined in a report produced by a consultant paid by the grant project. They are continuing to meet and discuss changes to our current procedures. We have included the Stalking and Criminal Harassment law, the Abuse Prevention law and the Stay Away Order in The Pachyderm (Student Handbook).
Summation
This project is focused on changing the campus climate about violence against women. We are raising the awareness of students, faculty, and staff of the issues of rape, sexual assault, relationship violence, and stalking. We are doing long-term preventive education with students. We are reviewing our policies, procedures and protocols and training staff in implementing them.