Building infrastructure at John Carroll University

October 7, 2010 |
Valor

University Heights, OH – John Carroll University (JCU) is a private, Catholic and Jesuit campus outside of Cleveland, Ohio with an undergraduate student population of 2,987.  In the last two years, JCU has experienced, participated and witnessed a shift in preventing and responding to sexual violence.  Dr. Sherri Crahen, Project Director and Amanda Rolf, Program Coordinator have worked to build a safer environment for students by building infrastructure while improving existing resources.  Last year, the Violence Prevention and Action Center, housed in the counseling center, opened to provide comprehensive prevention programming addressing sexual violence.

Violence Prevention and Action Center at John Carroll University

Faculty support at John Carroll University is on the rise since awarded the grant.  Dr. Sheri Young, Department of Psychology, shared her excitement about current and future collaborations with students and faculty on how to institutionalize the campus community response to sexual violence by integrating the topic into existing courses.  The CALCASA site visit coincided with the address of the new dean of the College of Arts and Science.  In her outline, Dean Colleran referred to the college’s direction of using a multi-disciplinary approach in addressing crisis management, which serves as additional institutional support in the campus wide efforts to end sexual violence.
With the grant, JCU has successfully collaborated with campus and community partners in making a safer campus.  In addition to increasing programming around prevention, JCU also revised the campus policy on sexual misconduct and orientation for new students.  Student involvement has also increased in the last few years with the creation of men against violence group forming this semester being a notable result in addition to the women’s collective that serves as a space for women to share their experiences and express opinions on a variety of issues including gender based violence.