Sexual Assault Prevention & Education Methods on Campus

By: Sarah Abel, Shiyang Chen, Jingjing Fang, and Morgan Weibel

Blue Light Phone Station, W. Carl Wimberly Hall

Students at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse reconsidered the campus safety issues after a
sexual assault took place in Sanford Hall in September 2014. Campus police and the Violence
Prevention Office have adopted measures, such as implementing the Blue Light Program,
providing the Choices and Challenges section, and creating The Campus Sexual Violence
Elimination (SaVE) Act to ensure students' safety, but few students know about them.

The Blue Light System: Pitfalls of Prevention

The victim in this falls assault case in Sanford Hall reported the crime, but there still remains a
number of incidences that go unreported. Campus police are challenged with not only
eliminating sexual assault on campus, but also creating an environment where students feel safe
reporting these crimes. For instance, they have installed blue light emergency phones all around
campus.

According to Scott McCollough, the Interim Chief of Police on campus, there are thirty-three
blue light phone stations, and these stations were all updated this year.

Because of these updates, the phones have more capabilities. In the past, they functioned more
like a regular phones and could call any number on campus. Now, the phones function like a 911
emergency phone bank. The dispatcher answers and can ask questions about the situation taking
place and the student can respond, says McCollough. It is a two-way communication. There is
a phone outside of each residence hall and with these, the students are able to call the front desk
of the hall in case they are locked out.

McCollough also says that they plan to install cameras for each phone to improve the
functionality, and this decision would be for the entire campus to discuss because of the privacy
implications. Cameras could help catch the guilty party or help the dispatcher to have an image
of the event if the student is verbally impaired. Also, the cameras could help in situations in
which the phones have been used inappropriately.

They are used by mistake many times, says McCollough. He explains that people hit the
button as a prank, or students who have been out drinking late at night hit the buttons by mistake.
However, the phones are not a way for students to call and be escorted. Several years ago, there
was a system like this in place and Student Services provided escorts if students did not feel safe
walking home alone. Many campuses still use a system like this. If truly necessary an officer
from campus police would be able to provide an escort.

McCollough estimates that the phones only get one

to two legitimate calls a year. Considering the
number of students on campus and blue light
phones, he regards the number is quite low. Either
the incidences when students feel in danger is low
or students are not aware of the phone system.

Students Unawareness of the Blue-light

According to the University of Wisconsin System
Report on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment 2012 Annual Report, the campus Violence
Prevention Specialist gives a presentation to all incoming freshmen at orientation, and a separate
presentation is given to all incoming international students. However, as McCollough has said,
those methods may have changed and the campus police are only involved if they are invited.

To examine the UW-L students knowledge about the Blue Light Program, our group has taken a
survey. 51 students, including 40 female students took the survey. 59% of the students do not
know about the Safewalk Program at the UWL. The results also show that none of these students

have used this Safewalk Program, because they were not taught how to use the Blue Light
Emergency Phone, and they do not know what the Blue Light is. 78% of students have never
received the information about the Safewalk Program from UW-L. 84% of students do not know
about other programs to prevent sexual assault at UW-L.

Several students do not remember if they were told about the phones or not during the
orientation week, despite McCollough says that they did. International Students were sure they
were not notified about the phones. The police only give presentations when they are invited.

Its hit or miss, sometimes we do sometimes we dont, says McCollough. I would guess that
identifies a lack of education on the blue lights right there.

The purpose of the campus police is to keep the students safe while on campus and they provide
more ways other than the phones. The UW-L Police Department suggests that a variety of bluelight emergency telephones have been located throughout campus, and the telephones
automatically rings to University Police when activated. They patrol campus at times they feel
are higher risk and test the blue phones and the phones in the elevators which work in a similar
way as the blue light phones.

Office of Student Life- Violence Prevention Works to Find Ways to Prevent Sexual Assault

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse takes the safety of their students seriously. The UW-L
Office of Student Life-Violence Prevention makes it their mission to help keep students safe.
They assist students, faculty, and staff members with advocacy, information, and offer education,
support and training to the campus community. The Office of UW-L Student Life-Violence
Prevention has made several changes over the past few years as the issues surrounding sexual
assaults on campus have become a growing national issue. Between the Steubenville, Ohio
incident and the University of Virginia incident, it now appears on news programs and front
pages daily.

Statistics from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center have shown that reported campus
sexual assaults have been on the rise. The reason for this is due to new legislation making it
easier for students to report sexual assault. Recently, sexual assault on college campuses has
become a part of the agenda at the White House and in Congress. President Obama
commissioned a special task force on this topic and has continued to make more resources for
college students and campus employees like notalone.gov. The House of Representative and

Senate worked together to create The Campus Sexual Violence Elimination (SaVE) Act that was
implemented on October 1.

It is the Violence Prevention offices responsibility to correctly implement programs to follow

the guidelines. In recent years, there have been several changes and new programs that the office
has implemented. During new student orientation, a section called, Choices and Challenges, is
presented to the students. Student actors act out different scenarios of issues that students may
have to deal with during their college years. Ingrid Peterson, Violence Prevention Specialist, also
talks with students. Think About It, is a new online course that all incoming students are
required to take.
Ingrid explains, It covers sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, and alcohol.
Ingrid also speaks with students around campus all year round. She thinks one of the biggest
issues is our culture surrounding sexual assault.

Too often sexual assault is not correctly identified. People may not classify being assaulted by
someone they know as sexual assault, says Ingrid. So firstly we want people to know how to
correctly identify it.

The Office of Student Life-Violent Prevention works to prevent violent, threatening behavior,
Ingrid hopes that by changing the cultural and finding ways to continually prevent sexual assault
so that risk reductions such as blue security phones or rape whistle arent necessarily a needed
things anymore.

Staying Safe on Campus

After an event like the assault that took place in Sanford Hall this fall, there seems to be new
concerns rise about the prevention of sexual assault campus wide. Students may become more
aware of their surroundings for the next couple of months, but soon the hype dies down and the
story leaves the newspapers and life goes on. It is the job and responsibility of Campus Police
and Student Life organizations to do all they can to prevent these events through education and
campus services like the Blue Light Phones. Education may be the key to it all, but students
should always look out for each other and themselves as well.