As early as next fall, GUSA will give Georgetown undergraduates an opportunity to train as advocates for sexual assault victims on campus.
The program, which models those already established on universities such as Brown, Columbia and Duke, will include a course designed for students in the School of Nursing and Health Studies, as well as create a student-run help center from which trainees will provide around-the-clock sexual assault response.
Students in the program will receive notification by pager about any student victimized by sexual assault. These students will additionally be trained in providing counseling and therapy.
Secretary of Student Health Tom Parrillo (SFS ‘06) and Communications Director Dave Ragone (COL ‘07) are drafting a Sexual Assault Advocate Initiative.
“The greatest part of the program is that it is a first point of contact for student victims,” Ragone said. “The program will give them an opportunity to be more comfortable.”
Parrillo and Ragone said they hope the program will bolster awareness of sexual assault and thereby lower its rate of occurrence.
In 2004, the Department of Public Safety received 18 reports of sexual offenses, a twofold increase over the number reported only two years earlier. This number, however, only represents a small fraction of actual offenses, according to DPS.
“Only one in 100 victims actually go through and report it,” Shannon Hunnicutt, Georgetown sexual assault and health issues coordinator, said. “Sexual assault is very much under-reported.”
Currently, student victims of sexual assault can only turn to administrators and other adult staff members for help. Hunnicutt offers confidential resources for student victims and their friends as well as information regarding the various counseling and judicial options for student victims. None of the services currently provided by the University, however, offer student victims access to support from peers.
Parrillo said he hopes that these student advocates would better relate with victims’ concerns.
“The strength in the program lies in that it will be a student program,” Parrillo said. “I hope the kids would serve as an advocate core for the school… analogous to the GERMS situation.”
Parrillo said he anticipates seeing an initial increase in the number of reported incidents at Georgetown. He reasons that, through the initiative, students will have more opportunities and support for reporting sexual assault.
“There will be a spike at the beginning [but] overtime those numbers hopefully will go down,” Parrillo said.
GUSA plans to submit the final proposal within the next month.
