After more than a year of planning, meeting and researching the University of Oregon Organization Against Sexual Assault is ready to hire staff for the 2014-2015 school year.
Former ASUO President Laura Hinman created the organization in 2012 as the Sexual Violence Prevention Task Force after negative reaction to the university’s implementation of a mandatory reporting protocol.
The task force’s founding members created a report identifying and evaluating current sexual assault related resources and services on the UO campus. The spring 2013 report made detailed recommendations to increase campus awareness, literature and educational changes, trainings, response protocol changes, further research and risk reduction.
The organization is currently funded to the tune of about $38,000 through the ASUO executive. Though funded under the executive, the group is its own line item, meaning that executive cannot touch the funds. The funding will allow the organization to hire students to carry out various programs.
The organization is currently composed of five members: Caitlin Corona, Amy Jones, Lauren Appell, Lyndsey Goforth and Naduah Wheeler.
“The group was student-made, student-run. It’s all of our ideas.” Jones said. “We presented this to the administration, but they’re not telling us how to use our money. They recognize that there’s a need on campus.”
Many of those ideas will be implemented in the 2014-2015 school year. The OASA plans to institute a buddy-walking program similar to Safe Ride, conduct a campus and near-campus safety audit and trainings like the Agent of Change module.
The program will first be implemented in Fraternity and Sorority Life and housing, then across campus. The decision to introduce FSL and housing to the module first is not because those are the groups with the biggest problems, but rather because they can reach the most people.
The module is meant to train students in what consent means, how to be active bystanders and how to intervene.
During the planning stage, OASA looked to other university campuses like UCLA and UC Berkley to assess how sexual violence prevention is handled elsewhere. There are many groups both on and off campus that deal with sexual assault. OASA member Lauren Appell emphasizes that the group is not the first on campus to tackle sexual assault or in its goal of working with and helping improve existing programs and resources..
“We are really just adding to the work that people have been doing for years,” Appell said. “We’re really just trying to reach out to students as students.”
The aim of the OASA is to improve existing structures and to coordinate between different groups on campus.
“I got involved with the OASA because sexual violence is a serious issue on our campus,” Caitlin Corona said. “Being a part of this organization would allow me to work with other student leaders to end this problem.”
The organization is currently hiring a facilitator, an internal affairs coordinator, a logistics coordinator and five member-at-large positions. Applications for all positions are due May 30.