Group examines student feelings on campus safety
By MYRA McGRIFF
Saint Mary's Editor
The Anti-Violence Task Force, appointed by College President Marilou Eldred, is currently working to process data on students' attitudes and knowledge about violence, sexual assault and safety on campus.
The task force, which began meeting this fall, is in its first year of operation. Composed of faculty, staff, administration and a diverse group of students, the task force defined goals early in the year to expand programming, events and methods of handling campus safety.
"We wanted to be a little more intentional about addressing the issues of violence on campus," said Eldred.
To do this, the task force wanted to get a representative sample of students' attitudes and knowledge about violence, sexual assault and safety.
With the help of Astrid Henry, women's studies and English professor, the committee formed a survey to draw out of students main concerns and how best to address the problem. The 10-question survey aimed to get a sense of the student need on campus in relation to their awareness of safety and violence.
The survey was sent by e-mail to students in December. The task force got responses from 254 students.
Fifty percent of the respondents said they were somewhat to very concerned about safety on campus. In contrast, 73 percent of the respondents were somewhat to very concerned about their safety outside of campus.
The 23 percent difference may be due to the situation Saint Mary's and Notre Dame community setup, according to Henry. She said she believes that because of the Saint Mary's/Notre Dame dynamic students share a concern about safety at levels that she had not experienced at other colleges.
"The relationship between Saint Mary's and Notre Dame creates a host of issues that are unique to this situation," Henry said.
Compiling results from a question about what a student would do in a case of sexual assault, the committee can decide how to design new campus programming and re-think old policies.
Although 82 percent of respondents said they knew what to do in cases of sexual assault, only 28 percent knew what the College's post-sexual assault procedures were. Henry said that part of the committee's position will be to make students aware of existing programs.
"I think there is a concern that when there are programs that student take advantage of them," Henry said.
Additionally, 28 percent of respondents said they were somewhat to very knowledgeable of homophobia and violence against lesbian and bisexual students. Also, 20 percent of respondents said they were aware of racism or violence against students of color. This data may be used in the future to develop strategies for education, according to the task force.
"In the long-term, I think the committee should have a broad vision of what we see as violence, including violence against lesbians, racism and emotional abuse," Henry said.
In terms of education, the committee has already been putting survey results into action. Even before the committee knew only 32 percent of their respondents were knowledgeable about self-defense, the committee proposed a solution: offer self-defense classes on campus.
"The self-defense classes are a direct result of the task force meetings," said Susan Dampeer, assistant to the president.
But the committee knows the classes are just a step in education. Once all the data is tallied by Mary Lelik, director of institutional research, and digested, the task force will meet again to brainstorm more ideas for programming and education.
Faced with the job of education, Henry stresses that the task force can educate Saint Mary's women on how to protect themselves, but hopes that the Notre Dame community can do the same.
"What I have seen [in the past] is menās anti-violence task force, men leading the movement teaching men right and wrong," said Henry.
Susan Almeda, student task force member, hopes the task force establishes more inclusive orientation programming as well as programming throughout the year that involves all parts of the student body. However, to make the task force fully effective, Almeda also sees a need to increase student safety awareness beyond Saint Mary's.
"My hope is that committee's mission will expand the to Notre Dame, Holy Cross and greater South Bend college community," Almeda said.
All News Stories for Friday, February 8, 2002
