UW System announced a new task force on sexual violence and better coordinate efforts from system and outreach. According to the press release, the UW System Task Force on Sexual Violence and Harassment was formed to strengthen the university’s capacity to protect students from violence and strengthen system-wide efforts at prevention.
Tonya Schmidt, a member of the task force and the director of Title IX and Clery Compliance, said the task force will ensure the campus community is educated on prevention programs for sexual assault.
During the task force’s first meeting on Thursday, Schmidt said they divided into seven different workgroups designed to target training on prevention and education.
This task force will strengthen already existing programs on campus, Schmidt said. ‘Tonight’, a primary prevention program through UHS that is mandatory to all first year and transfer students, promotes knowledge and understanding of sexual assault and consent. The program also raises awareness about victim rights and various support services. Schmidt said she believes that this program has been greatly beneficial for students.
“I think Tonight does a really nice job of laying out what is appropriate and what is not. I think not every student has identified groping on the dance floor that was unwanted, as something as harsh as sexual assault. When in actuality, it is sexual assault,” Schmidt said. “You didn’t give anybody permission to touch you there, not even on a dance floor. So I think that the more we educate students, the more they will realize, ‘that is not okay.’”
Another group on campus that works to provide help to sexual assault victims is End Violence on Campus, or EVOC. Carmen Hotvedt, assistant director for violence protection said EVOC is the “integrated sexual assault, dating violence and stalking prevention and victim advocacy center on campus.”
EVOC provides confidential victim advocacy services for students who are affected by these crimes, and provides a lot of consultation and training for people all across campus, Hotvedt said. EVOC provides consultation to a course entitled “Greek Men for Violence Prevention.”
This two-credit class is run through the School of Social Work. According to the UHS website, this class focuses on masculinity, gender, the media and violence against women.
“It is an effort to help men understand their own role as allies and to encourage them to intervene in situations they find among their all male student orgs,” Hotvedt said. “How they can use their leadership to begin social positive change and how to have empathy for victims and to work with women in an effort to stop sexual assault and dating violence.”
Along with these classes, there is the sixth annual EVOC summit on Oct. 1-2. On day one, Men Can Stop Rape will be hosting a workshop. The second day will be focused on campus policy updates, information about prevention programs, LGBTQ intimate partner violence, and reporting options, Hotvedt said.
These programs will be a stepping stone for the task force. Through the task force, UW System will look at addressing this issue, and strengthening group efforts throughout the community, Schmidt said.
“Ultimately, the task force is created because many heads together are better than one,” Schmidt said. “It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes a village to figure out how to address this really systemic issue on our campus.”
