A student focus group was held on Wednesday night to hear student concerns and ideas about sexual violence prevention, education and advocacy at Syracuse University.

The meeting, held in the Panasci Lounge in the Schine Student Center, was facilitated by members of the Chancellor’s Workgroup on Sexual Violence Prevention, Education and Advocacy, which was created by Chancellor Kent Syverud in July following changes to sexual assault services on campus.

The role of the workgroup is to identify gaps in services for sexual violence, prevention and advocacy and to hear ideas about how to improve campus and community culture relating to relationship and sexual violence.

“Once we get all that voice we will figure out what people are saying and then write our report,” said Catherine Gerard, associate director of Executive Education Programs and director of the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

The focus of the meeting was to hear general student comments on the campus culture towards sexual violence, as the workgroup has already received information from faculty and members of Student Association and Graduate Student Organization, she said.

About 25–30 students attended the meeting and were involved in small group discussions around tables that were facilitated by a member of the workgroup. The major themes of the discussions were then shared with everyone in attendance.

Communication and accountability became two of the most discussed items of the night. Some of the communication concerns expressed by the students included the lack of clarity in what services are offered to students, the way in which information reaches incoming students and what the process of reporting an incident looks like. Some concerns on accountability, included SU’s duty in upholding the values it expects of its students and offering easy access to statistics of what incidents happen at SU.

Chase Catalano, co-director of the workgroup and director of the LGBT Resource Center, said the work group is looking at past SU data and data from outside sources and how it relates to the information received from listening groups. The group plans to compile the report by the Dec. 15 deadline.

“We are at the close of the data gathering portion so we can move forward after the (Thanksgiving) break to creating the report,” Catalano said.

Catalano said although the workgroup has asked for an extension for the deadline of the report, it believes it’s important to release the report before winter break in order to sooner act on the findings released in the report.

Pam Johnson, the other co-director of the workgroup, added to Catalano’s comment that the workgroup had not yet made any recommendations except for the ad in The Daily Orange.

Johnson also said the dialogue that has taken place about sexual violence prevention, education and advocacy on the SU campus and around the nation was noteworthy.

“Sometimes it’s change that sparks the questions. Lots of people are asking questions and creating change and that’s really important because that’s what universities do,” said Johnson.

Rukayant Oloko, a senior political philosophy and English textual studies dual major, attended the meeting because she is a part of the office of health promotions in the mentors and violence prevention program.

Oloko said she feels that focus groups and listening meetings are important because they promote awareness and inform students of what is happening on campus.

Said Oloko: “I feel like surveys don’t necessarily do a lot. You get more of a personal connection of what is going on. Some very important questions were asked by students and it shows that the university cares.”

Published on November 13, 2014 at 1:21 am

Contact Katelyn: kmfaubel@syr.edu