In Campus Safety's weekly incident reports for the 2008-09 academic year, only three sexual assaults have been reported on Loyola's campus, but according to the Department of Justice one in five women in college has been sexually assaulted.
Throughout this academic year, the College Advocates of Reproductive Education have worked with various departments at Loyola to improve Loyola's policies and to raise awareness of where sexual assault survivors can turn.
"[CARE] has been a catalyst for change here," Student Community Liaison Campus Safety Officer Tim Cunningham said. "Students may feel that the university is set in its ways and doesn't stray from that, but CARE has shown that with proper directed focus and energy that things can change."
During CARE's "Know Your School's Policies" event in November, participants identified shortcomings and improvements they wanted to see in Loyola's sexual assault policies. Since then CARE has worked closely with Campus Safety and Judicial Affairs, and hopes to coordinate with the Wellness Center to address these community concerns.
"We want to continue to open the dialogue about what is going on on campus and work with Loyola and incorporate everyone with improving this," said senior Jennifer Seidel, a member of CARE. "It's definitely something we plan on furthering."
One of the major changes that will be instituted shortly is the establishment of a comprehensive Web site, which will combine the Wellness Center's extensive resource list with information from Judicial Affairs and Campus Safety. Director of Judicial Affairs Jeremy Inabinet and Wellness Center Health Educator Alissa Eischens have submitted their request for a new page to the Web content manager.
"We've already seen change happen with the Web site," Inabinet said. "We've heard from students that we need a place where the information is all in one spot."
Judicial Affairs
Inabinet has worked with CARE since November, and he has drafted changes to Loyola's policies, which he then passed on to CARE. The group shared these documents with other students to produce feedback. Inabinet is currently taking their feedback into account, and he plans to meet with the Vice President of Student Affairs Richard Salmi, S.J., shortly. Inabinet and Salmi will decide which parts of the policy to move forward with and which parts need to be approved by a University Policy Committee, which consists of students, faculty and staff.
"The handbook should basically include a step-by-step of what is available to survivors," said sophomore and CARE co-president Michelle D'Onofrio.
Inabinet drafted a Survivor/Victim's Bill of Rights, which lets a sexual assault survivor know where to start, what resources will be provided and that he or she will be treated with dignity and respect and given support.
"A survivor of sexual assault has had power taken away from them so this is about giving power back," Inabinet said. "Here's the decisions you can make and we're going to support you the whole time."
Inabinet will also propose that the Loyola handbook list the things that a sexual assault survivor can request such as a housing move or a schedule adjustment, and a list of on-campus and off-campus resources that survivors can contact. Senior Christa Heilman said CARE hopes to assist in publicizing the information in the newly written policy and having it distributed around campus. There is no comprehensive plan right now to work on further publicity of the policies.
"We're moving as quickly as possible, but we want to take the time it takes to make sure it's right," Inabinet said.
Campus Safety
At the "Know Your School's Policies" event, a number of students questioned Campus Safety's response to incidences of sexual assault. At the time, the department defended its actions and said that every case of sexual assault was dealt with appropriately, and since then Campus Safety has added more sexual assault training for its officers and dispatchers. Education and Training Lieutenant Joe Bogdalek is working to make sure officers are more prepared if they are called to deal with an incidence of sexual assault.
Campus Safety is currently showing all of its officers three 8 to 10 minute videos that were produced by the Chicago Police Department. These videos specifically instruct officers how to work with sexual assault victims as first responders. The videos also inform Campus Safety officers of the rest of the legal process survivors will face so they are knowledgeable enough to answer survivors' questions.
"It's important to make sure that officers know the entire process and the steps beyond us because we're the first responders and the first people the person tells the story," Cunningham said.
Immediately inside the Campus Safety office door there is a rack full of pamphlets for sexual assault, domestic violence, acquaintance rape and a number of other issues, and on the counter across from the rack there is a bowl of whistles with Loyola's emergency number printed on them. Campus Safety also keeps their squad cars stocked with this information so that if a survivor does not want to take immediate action he or she will at least have the information to act in the future.
Over the summer, Bogdalek hopes to bring in guest speakers from CPD's Sexual Assault unit to further train officers on how to respond to incidences of sexual assault. Campus Safety has also ordered another series of three hour-long videos made specifically for officers on college campuses. One of these videos will addresses acquaintance rape, which is usually the type of sexual assault that Campus Safety faces.
Wellness Center
In March, Eischens, with support from the Wellness Center, applied for a grant from the Department of Justice. If Loyola is awarded this grant it will secure the funds to create a three-year comprehensive plan to address violence against women on campus and involve around 13 departments. Eischens hopes to hear back from the federal government by May or June so that the program can be initiated in the fall.
"The main component is the community task force to get the Loyola community talking about these issues and to make changes," Eischens said. "We'll look at how our policies serve students, how to improve those services and what some of the best practices are."
Loyola would also partner with the YWCA and Rape Victim Advocates, a survivor advocacy organization. The grant will include more comprehensive education about violence against women for students at orientation, funding to train graduate students as rape victim advocates who would be available 24 hours a day and also more training for Campus Safety and Judicial Affairs.
"If we get this grant it will make a huge difference," Eischens said.
Eischens had planned to apply for this grant before CARE began to address the issues of sexual assault on campus, but Eischens plans to work with the group's members in the future regardless of whether or not Loyola receives the grant.
While these three departments work to address sexual assault on campus, CARE plans to continue working with administrators to advocate for improvement of the way sexual assault is addressed on campus.
"A lot of students take step one and express their concerns and stop there, but with this group they voiced their concern, they raised awareness and then they followed up, they listened, asked questions and brought forward ideas," Inabinet said.
In the future, CARE hopes to improve the services offered to survivors after the fact such as sexually transmitted infections and HIV testing and to increase the general availability of such testing on campus.
"It goes to show that if you have a goal and you have the drive, you can make change," said Heilman, who co-founded CARE during her freshman year. "I think it takes student advocates to bring issues to the administration's attention."
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