Butler is a member of the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault Campus Consortium, which requires members to have a sexual misconduct prevention task force. Collegian file photo.
KATIE FREEMAN | STAFF REPORTER | kmfreema@butler.edu
Applications to join the Sexual Misconduct Prevention Task Force are being accepted from now until April 19.
Established during the 2017-18 school year, the task force was formed to incorporate a wide range of student and faculty perspectives on the best methods to educate students about sexual misconduct prevention on campus.
It is co-chaired by Butler’s Title IX coordinator, Maria Kanger, and Jules Arthur-Grable, sexual assault response and prevention specialist.
Butler is a member of the Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault Campus Consortium, which is made up of various Indiana universities that work together to develop best practices and share data. Members are required to have a sexual misconduct prevention task force.
Kanger said the task force provides an opportunity for students to take initiative, have their voices be heard and play a role in sexual misconduct prevention on campus.
“To prevent sexual misconduct on campus and create a safe space requires everyone’s involvement,” Kanger said.
Students on the task force attend monthly meetings and speak for their representative groups on what prevention methods they believe are most effective. Faculty and staff involved in the task force help to provide different viewpoints as well.
“Everyone has a different perspective,” Arthur said. “Students see what’s among their peers, and staff want to provide and educate for their students. The faculty all really care about the students.”
Throughout this school year, the task force has put on programs such as the sex signals workshop, the SGA healthy relationships training program and self-defense workshops with BUPD. They also created magnets with information about sexual misconduct resources.
Kanger said one goal of the task force is to unite student efforts on campus to create a more effective approach to sexual misconduct prevention.
The task force partners with on-campus groups such as PAVE: Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment, attending monthly meetings and coordinating with each other to plan events.
Malin Peterson, a junior studying secondary education and SGA speaker of the senate, is a student currently involved with the task force.
“We have so many groups working independently, and some things are missing,” Peterson said. “We can do more with it if we turn it into one group. If we all work together, we can be the strongest we can be.”
The number of members on the task force will be determined by the applicant pool.
