Student Council met Tuesday to hear from leaders of the Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition and from Dean of Students Allen Groves.
Groves addressed the disappearance of second-year College student Hannah Graham, outlining the involvement of the Charlottesville Police and more recently the FBI.
“We have a lot of people focused on this,” Groves said. “It’s a very challenging time [and] a very concerning set of facts. There’s no easy way around that. [We] hope it will take a positive turn.”
Groves said it would be up to the second-year class and not the Office of the Dean of Students to plan a vigil or a similar event.
“It is [up] to the students to decide how it should happen,” he said.
Leaders of the Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition also addressed the Council. The group, formerly known as the Sexual Assault Leadership Council, leads the “Hoos Got Your Back” campaign and includes representatives from ADAPT, One Less, One in Four, Peer Health Educators and Feminism is For Everyone.
Sara Surface, a third-year College student and one of the chairs of the coalition, said the organization is working toward greater impact.
“We hear a lot from the general student body on getting involved in preventing sexual violence and how they can help,” she said.
She said the coalition is working on developing a home-grown education module for all students to complete in November.
“Over the summer it was decided that, with everything going on, we really needed a campaign that would reach a large part of the student body about sexual violence and [would] also build a community,” Surface said.
She said the group is disappointed with the status quo but encouraged by a new dialogue of students looking out for each other.
The Coalition gave a ‘crash course’ in dealing with situations of sexual assault. Will Cadigan, a fourth-year College student in One in Four , explained the importance of the three Ds of bystander intervention: direct, distract and delegate.
“A lot of what we hear is that people feel awkward about interacting — they feel awkward about going into a situation that they feel is wrong,” he said. “Doing nothing is the worst thing you can do.”
Cadigan emphasized the need for student leaders to “make bystander intervention cool.”
Surface instructed members on how to provide support to someone who has survived an assault. She said the first reaction to a survivor’s story is the most important because it can affect their overall healing process.
“Say ‘I believe you’ and ‘its not your fault,’” she said. “The next thing you can do is offer resources.”
These resources include the Office of the Dean of Students, Counseling and Psychological Services, the Women’s Center and the Sexual Assault Resource Agency.
“[It’s] important not to ask things like ‘what were you drinking’ or ‘what were you wearing,’ because those things don’t matter and no one deserves to be sexually assaulted,” she said.
First-year College student Jack Capra also pitched Council his idea for a new CIO, Buddies on Call. The service would put safety measures in place for students traveling alone.
“You call in and people will come and pick you up and walk you to a bus stop or walk you all the way home,” he said.
Capra said groups consisting of at least one male and one female student would be on call throughout the night.
“I had the idea that me and a couple of my hallmates that don’t go out and party could go and stand on the Corner and walk people home,” Capra said.
Safe Ride does not operate until 2:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. SafeWalk is available only Sunday through Thursday.
“There’s sort of a gap in services at the University,” Capra said.
Capra said planning for issues such as training and identification is still in the beginning stages. He suggested members could wear coordinating neon T-shirts to identify themselves. He hopes to plan the organization in more detail in the coming weeks.
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