In July I wrote a long post about alcohol and consent that was sparked by a case out of Lincoln University in PA. A female student reported being raped by multiple men while intoxicated to the point of incapacitation, and this year four of these men were set to go to trial. What makes this [...]

Sarah’s recent post about the two types of education around sexual violence (risk reduction and primary prevention) and the need for colleges and universities to do WAY more of the latter than they do at present got me thinking about what I take to be some of the broader issues impacting sexual violence – both [...]

Most people reading this probably won’t remember the name Kyle Payne. His story broke right around the time I started working with SAFER in the summer of 2008, and it stuck with me over the past couple of years. For the best background, I would check out the series of posts that Cara did over [...]

It’s back-to-school time, and for the first time in three years I’m headed back to school too. It’s exciting, but also stressful and, especially if you’re headed to college for the first time, potentially kind of scary. Not only do you have to worry about doing well academically, making friends, securing work, etc., but you’re [...]

Continued from Part I. Where we left off, Suzy had just discovered her school’s Low Income Student Alliance (LISA). Suddenly, there was this camaraderie that I previously found difficult to foster in a decentralized urban campus. All of us, despite our generous scholarships, still have to work to pay for our tuition, books, housing and/or [...]

This is part one of a piece written by Suzy, one of SAFER’s amazing summer interns. Look for part two on strategic organizing in the next couple of days. Many college students in the US grew up believing in the same narrative. It starts with high school graduation, then it’s followed by the pursuit of [...]

Amanda’s link, in her last post, to the recent story about a New York Department of Buildings Commissioner stopping and apprehending a man physically assaulting his wife got me thinking about the dynamics around bystander action. What I’m most interested in, however, is something quite a bit different than this case, in which someone witnessed [...]

I’m a bit pressed for time this week, but I want to highlight a couple of international items. And one is good news! The first dedicated centers for rape victims recently opened at three hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. The centers, sponsored by Yeni Yuzyil University, are designed to provide counseling and legal advice to victims, [...]

A couple weeks ago, Christine (another SAFER Board member) and I spoke with Livia Rojas at the California Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CALCASA) about the work that SAFER does, what we’ve been up to, and what we’re excited about. The interview is now online for your listening pleasure. Thanks to Livia and CALCASA for their [...]

My favorite part of the newspaper I worked on in college was always the sex column. “Carnal Knowledge” was sometimes the most thoroughly researched piece in a given week—our “sexpert” answered three or four questions submitted by anonymous students which ran the gamut from “is my foreskin normal?” to “when is it OK to hook [...]