Allison Austin: Keeping Guilford S.A.F.E.
Erica Wiggins
Issue date: 4/5/02 Section: Features
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S.A.F.E. has sponsored events such as coffeehouses, the rape panel discussion several weeks ago, and "Take Back the Night," where Patricia Ireland, the former president of the National Organization for Women, spoke two years ago. S.A.F.E. also does behind-the-scenes work, such as surveys and reviewing Guilford's protocol for responding to sexual assault reports, which according to Austin has recently been an integrated effort with faculty and staff.
"Guilford has resources for dealing with sexual assault, but they aren't coherent or visible," Austin said. "I envision gathering these resources for sexual assault education and response in a community center. I want everyone to know that there's a place to go and people to talk to."
Austin also addressed the need for change. "I want people to feel safe reporting incidents. Security says that only one or two rapes are reported per year, but I hear about incidents more than that," she added. "There needs to be a more visible procedure for handling this."
Addressing problems that S.A.F.E. has encountered, Austin remarked, "The need for more education is acknowledged, but few people seem willing to invest time. It's really hard for a student-run club to do everything that we think is necessary, but I do want to give benefit to the small group of students who are active."
S.A.F.E. has organized events for next week such as another "Take Back the Night" and a self-defense workshop. For more information, see flyers posted around campus.
Austin, a senior, is looking at Americorps programs related to sexual assault issues and hopes that progress at Guilford will continue. "I hope that sexual assault education will be integrated into many parts of education at Guilford, for females and males, that talking about sexual assault won't be as shameful as it is now." Meetings are on Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. in King 126.
"I think that education about one-night stands is necessary. Nobody wants to talk about bad feelings associated with being intimate with someone you don't know, and how this lends itself to sexual violence and boundaries being crossed, even if they're crossed unknowingly, because there isn't the communication that's necessary," stated Austin.
"As women, we need to learn to state our boundaries and not be afraid of hurting people's feelings. We need to undo cultural teachings about being passive." Austin said. "Men need education that they don't need to prove their manhood by sexual conquest. We need to teach respect. That's what it comes down to. We spend so much time on definitions that we lose the human experience of feeling violated because of lack of respect."
Austin noted, "We're on the road. We're not there yet, but we're further along than when we started. It's a community effort, and we need to work together."