Carrie Baker Chancellor | Student
Development Beat
During a time
of heightened sexual assault awareness, Appalachian State University
has added the position of “Coordinator for Sexual Assault Prevention”
to the Center for Student Involvement and Leadership (CSIL) staff.
Dean of Students Susie L. Greene said talk of
the new position began last December.
“It’s been a while coming,” Greene
said.
Suzette Patterson, assistant director of OASIS,
Inc. and co-founder and future advisor of the university’s
Women’s Center, will fill the new role.
Patterson said the new position will answer concerns
voiced by students.
“I think we were hearing from students that
they felt like they had to go through sexual assault alone, and
we know there are a lot of services on campus but students aren’t
hearing about them,” Patterson said.
Patterson said her job will be to coordinate
the different services that reach out to victims of sexual assault
and to work to prevent sexual assault.
“We really wanted to have one place where
students could go or one person that would be responsible for helping
the entire campus learn about all the services that are already
available,” Patterson said.
Patterson said the new position will also help
raise sexual assault education.
“Really I think the goal for the position
is to help publicize services that are available to educate students,
staff, RAs and RDs about sexual assault and how to respond to sexual
assault. Ultimately our goal is to prevent sexual assault from happening,”
Patterson said.
Patterson said some of her immediate goals will
be to create a Web site with information regarding prevention education
as well as information for victims of sexual assault or those who
might know a victim, and also to educate RAs and RDs about sexual
assault.
Greene said a recent increase in student awareness
of sexual assault also brought the necessity for the new position.
Greene said recent studies performed by the Committee
for Integrity at Appalachian (CIA) and “follow-ups” by
the Student Government Association (SGA), particularly regarding
rape kit legislation, created awareness on campus and a need for
the position.
“That brought to mind that a lot was going
on that people weren’t aware of,” Greene said.
Patterson said the amount of student awareness
and support has aided in the push for increased sexual assault sensitivity.
“We’ve known that there’s a need
for victims, but to get so much support behind us from the students
I think has been helpful to help illuminate the fact that there
are victims who feel like they’ve fallen between the cracks,
and we want to help them get the services that they need,”
Patterson said.
Patterson said delivering more information to
students will also be an integral part of her position.
“I think that there are many different sources
of information about sexual assault that we need to share with students,”
Patterson said.
Greene said she hopes the administration and
student voices will be heard in issues regarding sexual assault
education at Appalachian.
“I want it to be a collaborative situation
where we listen to what people say that we need, then we listen
to what is already there and see what a workable plan can be. I
think that butting heads doesn’t get us anywhere,” Greene
said.
Vice Chancellor for Student Development Dr. Gregory
S. Blimling said that as the issue of sexual assault at Appalachian
State was studied, the need for the position became clear.
“We have not done as good of a job as we
could in providing a central place where students can turn,”
Blimling said. “[The Prevention of Sexual Assault Coordinator]
will be a person that students can identify and associate with this
program.”
