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LanthornMONDAY, DEC EMB ER 5, 2011

T H E S T U D E N T - R U N N E W S PA PE R S AT G R A N D VA L L E Y

Grand Valley W W W .L A NTH o R N.c o m

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While students at Grand ValleyState University are still trying tomake sense of the two recanted al-legations of an attempted assaultand attempted sexual assault onthe Allendale Campus Little MacBridge last month, university of-

cials are urging the rest of the stu-dent body not to let those incidentsdeter victims of a sexual assault orattempted sexual assault from re-porting in the future.

We want to denitely get outthe message that this should not

deter students from coming for-ward, said Marlene KowalskiBraun, director of the WomensCenter at GVSU. The Wom-ens Center has seen an increasein discussion, dialogue, concernthat you have, and what that saysis that this issue is a very relevantissue on college campuses, andbecause we know so many peopleare suffering, we hope that thesestories will actually just heightenawareness that there are places

for people to go.According to a report by theU.S. Department of Justices Na-

tional Institute of Justice, 35 ofevery 1,000 women on a collegecampus are victims of sexual as-sault or rape in a given nine-monthacademic year.

Kowalski Braun said that in an

earlier 2006 survey, reported num-bers showed GVSU was in line withnational statistics, with about one inve to one in six students reportinga sexual assault on campus.

In the recent myGVSU campus

climate survey, 120 to 122 stu-

Dont be afraid to tellGV ofcials urge student body not to let alse

allegations deter uture victims rom reporting

By Anya Zenteyer andchelsea LaneGVL Staf

KoWALSKI BRAUN

See Assault, A2

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dents reported they had beensexually assaulted while atGVSU. Most of the reportedvictims were undergraduatewomen who said the assaulttook place during the rst sixweeks of their rst semester.Rather than report the assaultto police, most respondents in-dicated that they told a friendand felt embarrassed or re-sponsible.

The overwhelming vast

majority of criminal sexualmisconduct cases occur be-tween individuals who knoweach other, said Capt. Bran-don DeHaan, assistant direc-tor of the Grand Valley PoliceDepartment. ... We knowthese cases are underreported.These instances that occurredin November should not deterpeople from reporting thesecases. By and far, alcohol ordrugs are used as a tool dareI say a weapon in commit-ting these crimes. We encour-age individuals that have beensexually assaulted to report to

police so we can investigateand assist them to become sur-vivors, not just victims.

Kowalski Braun said theuniversity is battling with asocietal norming aroundwho is to blame for sexualassault, something that under-cuts the amount of reportedincidents not only on campus,but in general.

So, what we want peopleto know, is that because youwere drinking, because youfeel like you shouldnt havegotten yourself in this situa-tion there are no excuses

for violating someone, shesaid. We may talk about peo-ple making different choices so like, in hindsight, maybeI wish I hadnt drank so much but that is not a reason forvictimization.

The best determiner forthose questioning whetherthey should report an inci-dent? Kowalski Braun said itis as simple as following yourgut, an action underrated bysocietys shortfalls in deningwhat sexual assault is.

Most students cannot talk

about what consent is and isnot, so if were waiting forpeople to sort of have this de-nition, then were really hav-ing an uphill battle, she said.If you feel like somethinghappened that didnt feel right,we welcome you to come inand talk about it.

She said the university hasa very connected system,utilizing the Counseling Cen-ter, the Womens Center, thepolice department and com-munity resources to create anenvironment where students

can come forward and have avariety of options and choicesto report an assault or attempt-ed assault.

In addition, the WomensCenter received its rst three-year grant from the U.S. De-partment of Justice in October2010 for $265,129 to createand implement programs andresources to raise awarenessand prevent acts of sexual as-sault and violence on campus.

Theresa Rowland, the grantcoordinator for the ViolenceAgainst Women grant, saidthe multi-faceted approach to

both prevention and educationis the best part about the grant,allowing the Womens Centerto run a whole host of pro-grams for students to utilizeboth on- and off-campus.

This grant allows us tocontinue our work closely con-nected with the Department ofPublic Safety, the CounselingCenter and community re-sources like the YWCA andthe Center for Women in Tran-sition, Rowland said. Werealso training judicial ofcers,so its very comprehensive.

The core team for the grant,

called the Campus ViolencePrevention Team, includesmembership by those com-munity members from thevarious on- and off-campusdepartments, with eight tonine working groups underthe team, and between 25-30members in total.

GVSU was one of only23 schools to receive the U.S.Department of Justice grant in2010.

The goal is to not let any-thing fall through the cracks,Kowalski Braun said. Whatare all of the places that could

potentially deter someoneafter they report from theofcers to the security to thejudicial process to what wedo in counseling to how weconnect students to the com-munity and then how the

community connects studentsback to us.

Because we recognizethat sometimes, students maygo right to the nurse examinerprogram, which makes a lotof sense. But now we knowthat the nurse examiner pro-grams in both communitieswould say, Here are placesyou can go back on GVSUscampus.

Students also work underthe grant to raise peer aware-ness and education, such asthe group ReACT, an anti-vi-olence peer theater educationgroup and the recently-createdcollege mens group, which

has six to eight faculty andstaff members and about 10student names signed up sofar.

Weve been doing this for,you know, decades, and itsmostly been women doing thework, Kowalski Braun said.But, in order to really endviolence, we have to changeculture and in order to do that,you have to look at men andmasculinity. How are men so-cialized, what are mens rolesin this, how do their leader-ship and involvement changethe dialogue? And it is pretty

incredible what were seeing.Were really excited.

Rowland and KowalskiBraun said the VAW grant isa transformational one, andit was designed with that ex-pectation when the WomensCenter rst began writing it.

I think were actually see-ing the fruits of that labor,Kowalski Braun said. It istouching so many aspects ofthe institution. Change comesso slowly when you can onlydo one thing at a time, andthats the benet of the grant when you have the dollars

to be doing it...Its the synergy that you

get when youre doing thatwork one step at a time, youdont have that kind of syn-ergy.

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DeHAAN