Ohio University officials are moving forward with implementing new sexual assault programs, pending state funding.
Amanda Childress, assistant director for Campus Life, said the university is working toward meeting the requirements for a $300,000 three-year grant from the Department of Justice in order to create a survivor advocacy program for sexual assault victims on campus. OU submitted the request for the grant last year, and the Department of Justice will tell OU sometime this fall if the grant is awarded, Childress said.
If we receive the grant funds
then we have permission to move forward on all of this Childress said.
The grant would pay for, among other things, the full salary of an advocate, a graduate student assistant and a training program for all first-year students entering OU, as well as all other supplies and training necessary for the advocate over a three-year period.
The grant has four stipulations. First, it requires all first-year students to undergo some form of awareness training regarding sexual assault. Childress said she and Suzanne Dietzel, director of the Women's Center, have been looking at an online program similar to AlcoholEdu. The grant also requires the development of a task force dealing with sexual assault, which OU has created in the form of the Relationship and Sexual Violence Coalition, a committee composed of students and faculty.
In addition, the grant specifies that OU Judiciaries and the Ohio University Police Department review policies regarding sexual violence. Judiciaries introduced a much stricter set of sexual assault sanctions in the spring, and OUPD Chief of Police Andrew Powers is in the process of training officers according to the new policies, Childress said.
We have things moving already because the university wanted to see things happen beforehand Childress said.
Liz Herron, Student Senate's women's affairs commissioner, said she has not had the chance to meet with Dietzel and Childress yet, but she called the advocate essential for the OU community.
Our goals are really aligned
Herron said, adding that she will be a part of the process.
Once the grant expires, the university must look for ways to keep funding sustainable in order to continue the program.
It's a lot of money to try and find
Childress said, especially during budget cuts.
Childress said the program should be implemented in fall of 2010 if the grant moves through on time.
We really cannot do without an advocate much longer
Herron said.
tn336706@ohiou.edu
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Tristan Navera
