Penn State Intercom......October 26, 2000

$450,000 grant to boost fight
against violence toward women

Penn State will launch a broad new initiative to fight violence against women with a new $451,409 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Violence Against Women Office.

"We have made sexual assault prevention a priority at Penn State, and this funding will help us develop more targeted programs for women both on and off campus," said President Graham B. Spanier.

"We are in the midst of a national crisis of incivility that is more than disrespect for others or acts of intolerance or discrimination. Acts such as sexual assault and sexual harassment go beyond incivility, they enter the realm of criminal behavior. This grant will give us more resources to make our community a better place to live."

Sabrina Chapman, director of the Center for Women Students and principal co-investigator on the grant, said, "We are committed to changing the culture on campus and making sexual assault and other such behavior unacceptable at Penn State. We will focus our efforts on strengthening and further coordinating campus and community prevention programs and services to victims of sexual assault, relationship violence and stalking, and making these services more widely available and responsive to victims' needs."

Specifically, the grant will help sexual assault educators, advocates and assault counselors integrate existing and new services as well as support a collaborative educational effort on campus by a sexual assault awareness educator from the Center for Women Students and one from the Centre County Women's Resource Center.

Educational programs will be targeted to first-year students, students with disabilities, international students, LGBT students and students transferring to University Park from other campuses and other colleges. Another priority is to develop sexual assault and relationship violence awareness training for Judicial Affairs staff and University police as well as to work with Human Resources staff on educational programs for faculty and staff. Some of these training programs also will be conducted at locations throughout the Penn State system.

Services provided by the women's health department of University Health Services, counseling programs through Counseling and Psychological Services and Residential Life programs also will be enhanced. In addition to the Centre County Resource Center, Peggy Lorah, assistant director of the center and co-investigator, said other community partners include The Centre Abuse Response Team (CART), Mid Penn Legal Services and the State College Borough Police, with the Centre County Community Hospital supporting these efforts.

Lorah identified CART as a group of nurse practitioners with advanced training in sexual assault, who conduct medical examinations, testify in court and work as a team with University and borough police and health and psychological counselors as assault victim advocates.

"This funding will greatly enhance Penn State's current sexual assault awareness and prevention efforts and enable us to significantly expand our education programming and services," said Chapman. "At the end of the two years, we hope to have reinforced a model program of campus-community collaboration and reinforce a climate of zero tolerance for sexual assault throughout the University system."

Back