Lessons Learned from Developing and Launching a Campus-Based SART

• In Event: School and Campus

Abstract

An alarming number of students report experiencing sexual violence during their college years, with sexual assault accounting for the largest proportion of on-campus crimes in the United States. Colleges and universities not only have a moral duty to protect students under their tutelage and aid in their recovery from such experiences; institutions of higher learning also have a legal obligation to address sexual violence (i.e., Title IX). Sexual assault response teams (SARTs) have been deployed as a method of directly attending to and addressing sexual violence in the community. Yet, colleges and universities have been slow to adopt a similar method to targeting sexual violence within their own campuses, perhaps due to a lack of campus-based SART-specific resources. This paper discusses the development and implementation of a multidisciplinary campus-based SART at a mid-sized public university in the southeastern United States. The authors, including the campus-based SART’s Director, an internal evaluator, and an external evaluator, address both assets and barriers in developing a campus-based SART and share lessons learned systematically collected through individual interviews with SART members and program record review. Dissemination of lessons learned will aid in the development and implementation of the campus-based SART model at other institutions.

Authors

• Candice Selwyn, University of South Alabama

• Sarah Koon-Magnin, Christopher Newport University

• Emma C. Lathan-Powell, Auburn University

• Hannah Sawyer, Auburn University