UI resources, programs can prevent assaults, provide support

Because of the increased reports of sexual assault in the Iowa City community, it is important for faculty, staff, students, and members of the community to take a proactive approach to end the attacks, according to University of Iowa President Sally Mason.

“We all have the power to reduce our risk for assault,” Mason remarked at the Women’s Safety Forum at the Iowa Memorial Union on Sept. 12.

Mason and other University officials say they believe that faculty, staff, and students can reduce such risk through education.

“Education remains one of the most important keys to safety,” Mason says.

The University offers a number of resources and courses on sexual assault risk reduction, risk avoidance, and self-defense. Both men and women can use these safety tips and most of these resources.

The Johnson County Sexual Assault Response Team (JCSART) is a coalition of sexual assault nurse examiners, emergency room staff, rape victim advocates, law enforcement officers, and agencies in Iowa City and the Johnson County Attorney’s Office. JCSART was developed to coordinate the community’s response to sexual assault victims.

Sexual assault nurse examiners are one part of the team. They are registered nurses with special training to assist rape victims and to provide immediate, compassionate, culturally sensitive health care. These nurse examiners also collect medical evidence that will assist in prosecuting assailants. They provide direct services to victims of sexual assault at both University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Mercy Hospital. Examinations and treatment options for sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy prevention are discussed and available at no charge to the victim through the Iowa Attorney General’s Crime Victim Assistance Program. Sexual assault nurse examiners also provide expert court testimony if needed.

The local 24-hour Rape Crisis Line at 319-335-6000 will connect victims to the JCSART and sexual assault nurse examiners. For more information, visit www.nursing.uiowa.edu/jcsart.

The Rape Victim Advocacy Program (RVAP) is a program that provides free, confidential phone crisis counseling, in-person advocacy (accompanying victims to the hospital), and providing resource information for victims of any sex-related crime (including harassment) and their families and friends.

RVAP serves students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding communities. RVAP-certified sexual assault counselors provide follow-up services and counseling to victims, and have assisted staff and faculty in how to respond to students who disclose abuse. RVAP also has an extensive prevention education program. In the past year, RVAP presented 176 programs to more than 15,000 people on topics ranging from rape prevention and risk reduction to healthy relationships.

RVAP’s local 24-hour Rape Crisis Line provides in-person advocacy, support, and information, and can be reached at 319-335-6000. To schedule appointments with counselors, call 319-335-6001. For more information on emergency services, healing, how to support a loved one, risk reduction, and more, visit www.rvap.org.

The University of Iowa Department of Public Safety offers many courses on self-defense. The Rape Aggression Defense Program, the nation’s largest women’s self-defense program, is a comprehensive, women-only course that begins with awareness, prevention, risk reduction, and risk avoidance, while progressing to the basics of hands-on defense training.

Officer Brad Allison, an instructor in the Rape Aggression Defense Program and crime prevention specialist with the Department of Public Safety, says “90 percent of self-defense is risk reduction.”

The UI Department of Public Safety also provides other resources, including sexual assault survivor packets. To view a schedule of upcoming self-defense courses, visit the UI Department of Public Safety web site at www.uiowa.edu/~pubsfty. Additional Rape Aggression Defense courses will be offered in October. All courses are free to University faculty, staff, and students.

The NITE RIDE program offers women free, safe rides home. University police will use a dark blue, 15-passenger UI van to transport women from a designated pickup point at the corner of Washington and Clinton streets in downtown Iowa City to their residence halls or apartments. The van will be driven by a fully uniformed, full-time Department of Public Safety guard from 11 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday, and 11 p.m. Saturday until 3 a.m. Sunday. To arrange for pickup, women should call 319-384-1111. The service will run until December, when it will be evaluated. The service will not be offered during the Thanksgiving and December holiday breaks.

Co-sponsored by the UI Student Government, the service was devised in response to a growing number of assaults in the Iowa City area over the past year. The service is only available to women under the pilot project, since all of the victims who recently reported assaults have been women, and because police want to avoid the chance of inadvertently transporting a potential assailant. All of the suspects in the assaults have been described as men.

The Women’s Resource Action Center (WRAC) is a department within the UI Division of Student Services that offers direct service programs, support groups, and counseling to the Iowa City area. WRAC sponsors educational programming and events throughout the year. For more information on upcoming events or services, call 319-335-1486 or visit www.uiowa.edu/~wrac/.

University Housing will sponsor “How to be a Bad Victim” at 8 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 30, in the Main Lounge at the Iowa Memorial Union. Attendees will learn how not to be an easy target of crime, how to secure residence hall rooms and apartments from break-ins, and how to detect violent people, and strategies for responding in a dangerous situation. Taught by Erin Weed, a professional speaker, author, violence-prevention advocate, and self-defense instructor, the program will conclude with self-defense demonstrations.

For more information or to participate in the program, contact the Office of Residence Life at 319-335-3700. Though geared towards students, faculty and staff can refer students to this opportunity.

By Jennifer Ferm