People come to a college like Colgate for a variety of reasons. The rigorous academic schedule that embraces brilliant professors and challenging courses. The Division I athletics that promote comradery and competitive excellence. The multitude of clubs and extracurricular activities that provide students with a number of outlets when the stresses of class work get to be simply too much. Because of the countless positive attributes that are discussed when a school like Colgate gets name dropped in certain conversations, we often forget that there are always things that can be worked on as they pertain to this place many of us call home. There is always room for improvement around campus, particularly in spaces that can cause students mental or physical harm.
College campuses everywhere suffer with figuring out how to break the “cone of silence” that exists around the discussion of sexual violence, relationship violence, and sexual assault. On campus today there is Yes Means Yes, which embraces notions of positive sexuality and opens a dialogue about femininity and masculinity. There is also Bystander Intervention, which teaches students what to do and how to react when they see or hear something that may call for his/her involvement. However, these amazing programs don’t seem to be enough when it comes to these loaded issues. Both survivors and perpetrators continue to walk Colgate’s campus every day. These survivors are the brave souls who have most likely impacted our own lives in some form or another, whether we know it or not. Someone everywhere has a story.
Colgate has begun to take strides in the right direction in trying to eliminate the stigma that exists behind this discussion of sexual assault. With the creation of Haven, Colgate’s new sexual violence response center, survivors and supporters now have a definitive space where they can come and feel safe, protected, and validated. Haven is located at the garden level entrance of Curtis Hall. The goal of the response center is to provide confidential care, support, advocacy, and trauma-informed clinical services for survivors of sexual assault and other forms of violence. Likewise, the center will offer sexual assault awareness and prevention programming in alliance with on- and off-campus partners. Clinical services include counseling and therapy, offered both individually or in a group setting, consultation, and crisis intervention. Haven’s directors and staff thus far include Denise Contreras, Dawn LaFrance, and Natasha Torres, a recent Colgate graduate.
Fewer than five percent of sexual assaults of college students are reported; however, two-thirds of survivors do tell a friend about the incident. The goal of a space like Haven is to increase the level of comfortability and security that comes with supporting survivors. In a recent speakout sponsored by The Network on campus, survivors and supporters of relationship violence and sexual assault came together to create a space where any and all individuals could share his/her stories. The speakout was revered as a success by many that attended, yet what remained clear is the fact that the empowering space we all occupied in this moment needs to be further extended and celebrated in the future. Too many questions were left unanswered, too many frustrations were highlighted. There is a blatant necessity to both eliminate the stigma that surrounds relationship violence and sexual assault, as well as enhance the ability for survivors, and supporters, to feel heard and understood. We must advance the steps being taken in validating survivor’s experiences and maintaining sympathy, while accompanying our Colgate brothers and sisters in seeking out medical attention, counseling, or now attending Colgate’s Haven.