The Inter-Sorority Council and the University's Women's Center joined efforts to sponsor a sexual assault education program which was held this weekend. The program was the first of its kind offered for University sorority women.
Outgoing ISC President Massie Payne said the program was designed to raise women's awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault at the University, what to do if a friend is sexually assaulted and what resources the University offers those affected by the issue.
"A study was done last year or two years ago that indicated that a lot of women in the Greek system didn't really understand about sexual assault policies and there were a lot of sexual assaults that were going unreported," Payne said.
Outgoing ISC Women's Concerns Chair Kim Lanzarotta said she hoped the program would inform sorority women of updated Sexual Assault Board policies that are designed to ease the process of reporting and prosecuting sexual assaults.
"The goal of this program was to educate ISC members on the new Sexual Assault Board policies and how we can help our own community understand sexual assault and help to educate the whole student body as to what really goes on and what our sex culture is," Lanzarotta said.
As the program progressed, attendees split into smaller groups, in which they discussed sexual assault in relation to the University's social scene, as well as what behaviors are considered common or are accepted within the University community.
Third-year College student Janet Partlow said she thought the program was handled well overall, but said she would have liked to hear more about the actual process of reporting an incident to the Sexual Assault Board.
"They gave us definitions of sexual assault as U.Va. defines it and didn't really talk about actual cases themselves, like how someone would initiate a case and what happens when you actually go through a sexual assault proceeding," Partlow said. "There have been instances in the past where that hasn't gone smoothly for the victims."
The program was offered to all current ISC sorority members. In future years, only members of pledge classes will attend the program.
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