After two years, SAVP coordinator job to be reinstated

After two years without a Sexual Assasult Violence Prevention (SAVP) coordinator, the Vassar College Office of Health Education (OHE) is looking to reinstate the position.

Originally, the position, which was supervised by the director of Health Education, was co-funded by Vassar College and the OHE Department of Justice Grant for the Prevention of Violence Against Women. This collaboration, which began in 2007, expired with the grant in 2009. According to Vassar Student Association (VSA) Vice President Charlie Dobb '12, the College was unable to sustain the position alone due to the impact of the recent recession.

Though the OHE has many sexual assault prevention services available, including programs that educate students about sexual assault and a Sexual Assault Response Team (SART), a coordinator position will create an institutional center for sexual assault violence. "Having this [the SAVP coordinator] as a unique position will allow more time, dedication and sole focus to the job," said Director of Health Education Renee Pabst, who took on many of an SAVP coordinator's responsibilities after the position was eliminated.

Dobb explained that when the position was eliminated, the College saw sexual assault incident reporting plummet. "Students just were not coming forward," said Dobb. He expects that, once the position is reinstated, there will be an increase in the rate of reporting. However, he emphasized that this does not necessarily indicate an increase in the frequency of sexual assault incidents. A full time SAVP coordinator is also expected to improve the quality of Freshman Orientation activities related to sexual assault.

Although the search for a new SAVP coordinator won't begin for several months, Dobb hopes that the position will be filled by the end of the year.

"The interview process itself will involve a variety of faculty, administrators and students that work with the SAVP program who will meet with the prospective candidates," said Pabst, explaining why the process will take as long as it will.

Students played an important part in reinstating the position. According to Dobb, students were very vocal in asking for more focus to be placed on sexual assault awareness. Dobb also said that although Vassar is hardly unique in its concerns about sexual assault, he felt Vassar had a duty as a former women's college to increase awareness and education. "[Sexual assault] is a violation that happens on college campuses," Dobb said. "Any number is too high."

In the capacity as the VSA Vice President for Student Life, Dobb is also working on changing some of the College's policies regarding relationship abuse. Last year's VSA Council initiated the process of creating a distinct disciplinary charge for relationship abuse because, in the past, it was charged in the same way as other offenses.

That effort stalled in light of the lengthy VSA restructuring debate. However, the new relationship abuse charge is still in its preliminary stages and no information about the potential consequences of charged by it have been announced yet. Dobb emphasized that these charges are completely separate from the criminal charges that could result from relationship abuse.

"Students always have the right to prosecute," said Dobb.