From Harford Community College:
Dr. Dennis Golladay, President of Harford Community College, and Luisa Caiazzo, CEO, Sexual Assault/Spouse Abuse Resource Center, Inc. (SARC), signed a Memorandum of Understanding on December 10 in the Chesapeake Center Board Room on the HCC campus. The purpose of the partnership is to provide easily accessible domestic violence and sexual assault educational, preventive, and victim support services to the HCC community.
SARC is a nonprofit, nongovernmental local comprehensive victim services agency for domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The College has had a strong working relationship with SARC for many years.
Dr. Deborah Cruise, Vice President for Student Affairs and Institutional Effectiveness, welcomed the group. Dr. Golladay opened the ceremony, stating, “The College simply will not tolerate sexual misconduct on our campus. We are committed to preventing incidents of domestic violence and helping its victims. The signing of the MOU formalizes the existing relationship between Harford Community College and SARC in providing support services to members of the College community.” Ms. Caizzo thanked him for making the collaboration a priority for the College and noted Dr. Cruise’s role on the SARC Board of Directors, citing her leadership in initiating the partnership.
As part of the agreement with the College, SARC will appoint a contact person to communicate and collaborate regarding SARC services. The agency will make literature available to HCC students regarding SARC services, domestic violence, and sexual assault to increase student and faculty awareness. SARC services will be provided without any cost to HCC, students, or employees.
“SARC and Harford Community College have enjoyed a long partnership focused on raising awareness about the issues of domestic and sexual violence. We are pleased to formalize this relationship and applaud HCC’s commitment to ensuring student safety,” stated Ms. Caiazzo.
Per the agreement, Harford Community College will refer students and employees who have experienced past or present sexual assault or domestic violence to SARC by providing service and contact information. In addition, HCC will regularly provide to its students and employees educational and preventive information and workshops related to sexual assault and domestic violence and will involve SARC staff and resources as appropriate. HCC will also be responsible for any state or federally mandated reports that use data provided under the program.
One in five students experience rape or sexual assault while they are in college, and in the vast majority of cases, know their attacker. Recognizing that fewer than five percent of rapes and attempted rapes of college students are reported to campus authorities or law enforcement, this MOU formalizes both organizations’ commitment to work together to find solutions to keep students safe and provide access to support services when needed.
HB571, which passed both houses and was signed by Gov. Hogan on May 12, 2015, requires colleges to “pursue formalized agreements with [local law enforcement agency] and a state designated rape crisis program, federally recognized sexual assault coalition, or both that formalizes a commitment to provide trauma-informed services to victims of sexual assault and improve the overall response to sexual assault by the institution of higher education.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/no-1-in-5-women-have-not-been-raped-on-college-campuses/article/2551980
On the surface, this looks like college administrators and local “nonprofit/NGOs” looking out for the safety and well being of our college students. But I’d like to know if this has anything to do with the Obama administration mandate that colleges set up sexual assault prevention programs in order to receive federal funding. Unfortunately, it goes further than that. Many colleges have created kangaroo courts that deny young men accused of sexual assault the usual protections that our court systems afford. These accused are denied access to legal representation, unable to question their accusers and provide evidence of their innocence. Several recent cases have demonstrated that young women’s accusations were motivated by regret, embarrassment, vengeance, and scorn. What was once considered behavior based on unsound judgement is now considered a crime and young men are paying the price. Think Rolling Stone, Duke Lacrosse, mattress girl, just off the top of my head.
The 20% statistic is laughable as the above link shows. In fact, more credible studies show that the incidence of college assaults is staggeringly low, perhaps less than 1%. But when money is available for setting up unnecessary programs, need must be demonstrated.
I’d like to think that our local administrators are authentic in their concern. I want to believe that they are not willing to cast the lives of innocent young men aside because federal monies are on the line.
No one wants sexual predators to go unpunished. Everyone wants our children to be safe on campus. Sexual assault is a serious crime and a serious accusation. Let law enforcement and the criminal justice system handle these issues and take the federal government and political agendas out of the picture.
Seems like a great program. Now lets wait and see if “Skippy” keeps everyone safe while on the grounds of HCC. Well Skippy, gonna do the same high caliber job you did at HCSO? Sha right!!!