Next semester, Tufts students will be able to take a course in rape crisis counselor certification training sponsored by the Tufts Women’s Center and a grant from the Department of Justice’s Violence Against Women Office.
“We are using this grant as an opportunity to help students deal with sexual assault,” said Women’s Center Director Peggy Barrett.
About 25-30 undergraduate students enrolled in the course will earn state-certification as rape counselors, Barrett said.
Instructors from the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center will teach students about rape trauma syndrome, legal and health issues and resources available to rape victims, she said. Additional training will include crisis intervention, listening and counseling skills.
After completing the course, students may apply to participate in a 24-hour hotline slated to begin next fall.
The success of the first course will determine whether the center can create such a service, Barrett said. The center plans to offer the course at least every year and work with other campus services to assist students.
“Our goal is to provide an integrated service,” she added. “We want to create something that is helpful to our systems on campus.”
Tufts students can speak to a rape counselor 24 hours a day at the Counseling Center or they can contact the Health Services Center. Students can also call Ears for Peers, a student-run hotline that receives assistance from the Counseling Center, Barrett said.
At Boston University, students can call the “crisis intervention” counselor, a licensed social worker at the Mental Health Clinic at Student Health Services. The counselor is on-call 24 hours a day to the BU Police Department and residence hall staff, and students can call a rape hotline during business hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and the BUPD after those hours.
Likewise, the Counseling Center staff can schedule appointments with students from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the Danielsen Institute offers long-term counseling paid for by “many health insurance providers.”
About 1.5 million women and 834,732 men are raped and/or physically assaulted every year by an intimate partner, according to a July 2000 National Violence Against Women study. Among female students, nearly 81 percent of on-campus and 84 percent of off-campus sexual assaults are not reported to the police, according to the National Advisory Council on Violence Against Women.
The council states that colleges should “institutionalize” a campus-wide response to violence against women and suggests campuses enlist administrators, health care and mental health services, faculty and students in anti-violence efforts.
In addition, the Victims of Violence Prevention Act 2000 signed by President Bill Clinton in October re-authorizes the mandate that colleges and universities design education and training programs for students and staff to reduce the occurrence of sexual assaults.
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