The Women’s Center is in the process of hiring a rape-prevention education coordinator after receiving a grant from a state fund.
The purpose of this coordinator is “to take ownership for planning, implementing, and sustaining prevention efforts,” according to a statement made by the Women’s Center.
“The whole purpose of this role is to do what I do except on a larger scale,” Laci Weeden, assistant director of the Women’s Center, said. “That is to educate men and women on the campus community about how to prevent rape or sexual assault.”
Weeden said she already leads training sessions about how to handle situations of possible rape and sexual assault to students and campus staff. Some of the issues range from the act of communicating with a partner to learning about the dangers of leaving drinks unattended at parties.
One student who participated in the training said she still became a victim.
A female student, who declined to provide her name for privacy, said she took part in Weeden’s training from the Women’s Center. Later on in the same year, she was raped by an acquaintance.
“I knew what to do afterwards,” she said.
She said she went to Student Legal Services, Campus Police and the Counseling Center.
“I heard the training and knew the specific run-down, yet it still happened,” she said.
She said she believes the new program might have helped her to become more “aware of signs” of abusive patterns in her relationship. However, she said she still thinks her personal incident was unpreventable.
“I think what [the RPEC] is going to do will be a good resource, but you can only be told so many times not to walk alone at night or leave a drink unattended at parties,” she said.
Men said they are also skeptical of the effectiveness of the Women’s Center’s new employee.
“Essentially we’re talking about one of the worst things you can do to someone’s body,” Marty Mullis, a staff member of the Campus Crusade for Christ, said. “It’s hard to put yourself in that situation where that much hate and rage would take over.”
Mullis questioned the way the Women’s Center is planning on “teaching someone to stay out of those situations,” specifically an assault made by an acquaintance.
“You can’t teach someone something like to stay out of a situation where you trust someone,” Mullis said.
Weeden said students in potentially dangerous situations “may be thinking about the moment.”
“It’s bigger than the act,” Weeden said. “It’s more about the social culture on campus.”
She said the Women’s Center hopes with the new RPEC, students will begin to recognize situations that might create a chance for rape or assault and try to avoid them.
“Our goal is to educate the campus community,” Weeden said.
Other students said they found themselves in potential situations, but were able to evade any assault.
“You just have to be aware of what’s around you, not be by yourself and not be afraid to say no,” one female student, who did not want to provide her name, said.
She said she was asked by a stranger at a club to go home with him.
She said she believes the new program from the Women’s Center will “spread awareness that the world is not as friendly or nice as we want it to be.”
She said her parents talked to her about potentially dangerous situations since she was young and feels that has helped her avoid becoming a victim of assault.
“Though we’re adults, we girls have to always be conscious of what’s going on and look out for each other so bad things like molestation and rape doesn’t have a chance to happen,” she said.
Weeden said the RPEC will be hired sometime this semester.
The funding to pay the salary of the RPEC and program materials came from a grant from the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault through an application process, according to the Shannon Johnson, director of the Women’s Center.
“Whatever we can do to prevent another student from going through what [other victims] experienced is our ultimate goal,” Weeden said.
