Group to raise awareness about sexual assault

The recent incidents of sexual assault on campus have been spurred to further sexual assault prevention efforts in the form of a new group.

Penn Women’s Center Violence Prevention Educator Jessica Mertz recently formed a new group called Abuse and Sexual Assault Prevention. Though Mertz said she has been formulating the idea for a while, it was the recent campus incidents — two rapes in University-owned housing at the end of last month — that prompted her to make the group a reality.

ASAP has met three times so far, and has approximately 18 undergraduate members. Although co-ed, the group will serve as a primarily female voice to complement One-in-Four, Penn’s all-male sexual abuse awareness group.

Sexual violence “is not an issue that should be one gender or the other,” said College senior and One-in-Four President Josh Pollack. “In the end, we’re all trying to do the same thing, which is to prevent violence.”

ASAP’s main goal is to provide awareness about dating violence and sexual assault, and also to publicize helpful resources, such as hospitals that have rape examination kits and special services where victims may report assaults. In the future, ASAP hopes to hold peer education workshops.

For the time being, ASAP is campaigning for students, faculty and staff to sign a campus-wide pledge agreeing not to commit or condone domestic violence. Participants sign the pledge on a large banner, which will passed around through various organizations on campus.

Mertz said the group was formed as a result of frustration with a generally apathetic response from Penn students to possible breaches of safety on campus.

“We want to get people talking and interested in these issues,” she said. “We need to continue to recruit members.”

ASAP member and College junior Polly Van Den Berg joined the group because she wanted to raise awareness about relationship abuse.

“It’s important to recognize the signs [of sexual abuse],” she said, adding that “there’s more to be done in terms of raising awareness about it.”

College junior Liat Fleming-Shemer, also an ASAP member, added that a lot of students on campus were resistant to the idea that sexual assault is a substantial issue on campus.

But she emphasized that the members of ASAP need to work on “educating ourselves, before educating others.”

Alicia Oglesby, a counselor at Philadelphia’s rape crisis center, Women Organized Against Rape, said Penn’s student body should have reacted more strongly to the recent incidents of sexual assault, but she added that the formation of groups like ASAP is a “good step in response to what’s happened.”

“Education is going to be important,” she said.

But she advised that ASAP and similar groups pay added attention to educating freshmen and other new students. “It’s going to be important for them to make sure that they are setting a tone where sexual violence is not tolerated.”

ASAP meets Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the Women’s Center.

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