The University of Connecticut Women’s Center held “A Night of Creative Expression” on Wednesday to kick off Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
The Women’s Center is holding events throughout the month, including the largest event “Take Back the Night,” which will be held April 24.
In 2022, UConn President Radenka Maric launched the Task Force for Combating Sexual Violence and Supporting Our Students, which found that while UConn was well-resourced for sexual assault resources, there was a lack of student knowledge about resources and a lack of trust in university authorities and the UConn Police Department.
Elise Delacruz, the director of the Violence Against Women Prevention Program, discussed medical resources, saying, “If folks want to get the evidence collection kit done, they can also have that done on campus through SHaW.” While Student Health and Wellness is closed on weekends, Delacruz said that students can either wait for SHaW to open, as there is a 120-hour window after an assault during which testing can take place, or they can get tested at Windham Hospital or any other hospital.
Delacruz also discussed support resources available at the Women’s Center which include staff and Violence Against Women Prevention Program ambassadors who can direct students to resources.
Katie Holmes, a Violence Against Women Prevention Program ambassador, mentioned the support group In-Power, which is a gender-inclusive support group. “We definitely do recognize that there’s major discrepancies,” said Holmes regarding higher rates of sexual assault among BIPOC students as well as non-binary and transgender students. “We really do promote healing as a collective because regardless of who you are, it can happen to anyone.”
Delacruz also mentioned reporting resources offered by Community Standards, the Office of Institutional Equity and UCPD, though she said that students don’t need to report their sexual assault to get support.
“Let’s say you don’t want to talk to anybody at UConn,” Delacruz said. “There’s also support that you can get through the Sexual Assault Crisis Center of Eastern Connecticut and they are free and confidential and they have a designated campus advocate and she can come on campus and meet with you.” She said that they do not have reporting requirements to UConn or to the state. Their 24-hour hotline number is 888-999-5545.
Holmes also discussed resource categories, saying, “There’s confidential, which means that they will not share anything. There’s non-confidential, which means that they have to share what you tell them. And then there’s exempt, which means, basically, if we hear something, we don’t have to give personal information, we just have to say that a sexual assault did occur.”
Nala Davis, another ambassador of the Violence Against Women Prevention Program, discussed the lack of student knowledge about available resources. “I’d say a lot of the information given to students is through modes that they don’t really look at often. It’s there in plain sight, but we don’t really look at it.”
She also discussed the reasons why students rarely look at available resources. “I think that a lot of people are scared to even think about it, which is why there might not be a lot of engagement in some classes,” she said. “Also, we’re taught that sex and sexual assault is a very taboo subject that, you know, you’re not supposed to bring up.”
“We definitely know that there’s a resource gap, a knowledge gap in that realm so we’re trying our best to make it accessible,” said Holmes. “It is an uncomfortable conversation, but it’s uncomfortable because it’s not talked about enough.”
Holmes discussed training given regarding sexual assault, and said that Protect Our Pack at student orientation along with some sessions in first year experience classes were the only mandatory training exercises at UConn.
“I think education is the best way for prevention. I think that the only way we can really see progress on this campus is if people are educated and understand that their actions have consequences and that consent is truly something that is important,” Holmes said.
UConn has one of the highest rates of reported sexual assault on college campuses in the United States, according to a study done by the Washington Post. Delacruz thought that this was more due to high rates of reporting than higher rates of sexual assault.
“I really look very skeptically at universities who have very low reporting rates because we know the sexual violence is happening,” she said. “Why aren’t people feeling comfortable to come forward and talk about it? That’s the larger issue. I know it seems weird and counterintuitive, but the higher reporting rate is actually a better sign that folks are actually trusting the process and deciding to actually come forward.”
“There’s a lot of fear involved in going up to anyone and to say ‘this happened to me,’” Davis said about low reporting rates. Davis added that reporting rates are especially low for men and non-binary people.
“Again, even outside of this campus we know that report rates are horrendously low,” said Holmes.
Delacruz discussed mistrust of UConn authority figures and police, calling it “a larger issue.” She said, “I think that the mistrust of systems goes beyond UConn, so if I’m someone who’s not used to trusting authority figures, it’s not going to magically disappear once I come to UConn. So I think that there’s a larger systemic issue that we have to work on, because that also gets transferred to the university.”