Education
Orientation Program
Each fall, Tufts University offers a mandatory orientation program for all incoming students. The program focuses on information about rape, sexual assault, relationship violence, stalking and creating a campus community free from violence.
Program Goals
- Raise incoming students' awareness of the risk of being involved in sexual assault, relationship violence, and stalking as either a victim or a perpetrator.
- Raise awareness of ways to decrease the risk of being involved in an abusive or violent situation.
- To use peer modeling to have an impact on students' thinking about consent, sexual activity, and alcohol and other drug use.
- To demonstrate peer support for taking issues of sexual assault and safety seriously.
- To inform students of the law and consequences for rape and assault.
- To invite students to become part of the community that is taking a stand against violence.
- To provide information about on and off-campus resources if they are involved in an violent incident.
The program, entitled In the SACK: Safety, Awareness, Consent and Knowledge in Relationships, is 90 minutes long. We divide the incoming class of about 1300 students into three groups so that the audience for each of three programs is 350-500 people.
Format of the program
Student moderators welcome the audience and introduce the program. They ask several preparatory questions such as, "how many of you know someone who has experienced rape, sexual assault and stalking?"
Following the introduction, we show a powerpoint presentation that combines written slides and video clips. We provide definitions, statistics and resource information about relationship violence, rape and sexual assault, and stalking. The statistics are a combination of national and Tufts data. The video clips are Tufts students recounting experiences about these issues that they have had or witnessed on campus.
The moderators then introduce a speaker who is a survivor who speaks for about 20 minutes, providing information about the consequences of violence and encouraging the use of resources.
After this talk, two or three accounts of experiences that Tufts students have had with violence are read by other Tufts students. These are short descriptions of incidents that have occurred at Tufts that we have solicited from the campus community. They include descriptions of a man being assaulted by a woman, an abusive lesbian relationship, and a woman being drugged at a party.
This concludes the first part of the program. At this point, the audience is divided up into 16 same-sex groups (8 male and 8 female). Two student facilitators guide each group of new students to a classroom and lead a 20-minute discussion. The male and female groups have different formats for the discussions but share the same basic goals. We hope that the first part of the program has made it clear to the incoming students that this kind of violence happens at Tufts. In the groups, we discuss ways for students to decrease their risk of being a victim or a perpetrator, how to help a friend, what resources are available, and opportunities to become involved in the campaign against violence at Tufts. Students receive a wallet-sized card with contact information for on and off-campus resources.
Training of the facilitators
Student facilitators are selected at the end of the spring semester. We ask them attend one meeting to discuss the program and why they are interested in being a facilitator. We provide a packet of information to be read over the summer. In the fall, the facilitators receive 10 hours of training on the specific issues of rape, sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking, facilitation techniques, and the formats for the discussion sessions.