Anti-Assault Office Previews Plans

The student group leading campus efforts to reduce sexual violence met for the first time last night with the committee that their lobbying efforts helped to create.

Three officers from the College’s new Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response discussed future educational projects with the Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Violence (CASV).

Director Susan B. Marine, education specialist Heather Wilson and prevention specialist Juan Carlos Areán explained their new roles on campus to 16 students from CASV at an hour-long introductory meeting in Lowell House’s Coolidge room.

Last spring, the Committee to Address Sexual Assault, headed by Professor of International Health Jennifer Leaning ’68, made a recommendation for the creation of a centralized office that would provide 24-hour support and improve campus education and awareness of sexual assault. This year, the office tested out a new sexual assault education program for first-years.

Marine said she and her colleagues are currently conducting a four-stage evaluation of first-years and comparing their responses to those of sophomores to assess the impact of the new programs. First-years have already filled out the first 12-page survey, which they submitted at the mandatory sexual assault program, “Sex Signals,” held during Freshman Week. The second evaluation will be handed in during an entryway workshop; the third will be distributed in the spring; and the final survey will be taken sophomore year. This survey is being funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, according to Marine.

“We can’t continue to argue about why [we need these programs],” Marine said in response to a question about what happens if these evaluations show no change in attitudes. “If this don’t work, we’ll try something else. We just won’t do nothing.”

Currently, Wilson and Areán are coordinating sexual assault educational workshops for first-year entryways. They held their first entryway workshop Tuesday night.

“Between now and Thanksgiving we have to hit all the freshmen entryways,” Williams said.

The office has plans to reach out to upperclass students, as well.

“Next term each House is going to be sponsoring an event through our office, so I’m going to be meeting with the tutors,” Williams said.

Areán, who only works in the office part-time, said he was hired to get men on campus interested in the sexual assault issue, but said he realizes that “different people are in different stages” of understanding. He said the males in the audience are often concerned about the so-called “gray area,” in which a sexual act might be considered rape.

Areán said he has a simple response.

“If it’s a gray area, don’t go there,” he says.

Areán said he is trying to increase education for men on campus and met with Harvard Men Against Rape after the CASV meeting yesterday (please see below).

The Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response is currently located on the eighth floor of Holyoke Center, but Marine said they will be moving into a permanent space on the third floor in November.

—Staff writer Nalina Sombuntham can be reached at sombunth@fas.harvard.edu.