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MONDAY, FEB. 15, 2016 | VOLUME 130 ISSUE 8
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
Paige Stingley/KANSAN
"CARE Sisters." established by the Greek Life Sexual Assault Task Force, trains women in each chapter to be peer-to-peer mentors on topics related to sexual violence.
Sexual assault course empowers greek women Greek women combat sexual assault through "CARE Sisters" program
► LARA KORTE
@Lara_Korte
starting this April, the sorority women of the University will have to look no further than down the hall for guidance on sexual assault.
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The Greek Life Sexual Assault Task Force, established in Spring 2015 by Greek students, recently rolled out a program that will train women in each chapter to be peer-to-peer mentors and educators on all topics related to sexual violence.
The program, tentatively called "CARE Sisters," was created in cooperation with Watkins Health Services and is overseen by Merrill Evans, CARE coordinator for the University.
Johanna Hecht, president of the Panhellenic Association, said the purpose of the training is to provide sorority women with a knowledgeable confidant who can not only give compassionate understanding but helpful advice.
"There are a numerous amount of resources on campus and off campus for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, any sort of violence," Hecht said. "The
resources are there, but sometimes, if it's not someone you are kind of familiar with, it's kind of scary to want to open up to them and want to talk to them, and sometimes girls don't even know the resources exist."
Amy Long, associate director of Greek Life Programs in the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said the program was created in response to the controversy surrounding Greek life and sexual assault during the 2014-15 school year.
"We wanted this program to be something for women in the Panhellenic community
"With all those things circulating at that time, the Greek community said we really need to dig into this issue for ourselves and see what does this look like in Greek life." Long said.
Hecht said they wanted to create a program within the community that would combat sexual assault, but more importantly, she said they wanted to provide survivors with someone who could relate at their level. Hecht said the idea for in-house advocates came from similar programs at universities in North Carolina and Indiana.
that could relate with another woman who is also a Panhellenic woman who is going to school, living their day-to-day life, just trying to get through these next few years," Hecht said.
The program includes multiple women from all 12 Panhellenic chapters. The group is currently three weeks into a seven-week curriculum that includes lessons from a variety of experts on and off-campus, including nurses, private investigators, detectives and the district attorney.
At a session Wednesday, the women learned about the procedures, costs and anonymity policies that come with physical evidence collection. The group walked through the details with a SANE nurse, or sexual assault nurse examiner, from Watkins.
In addition to learning about procedures and resources, Evans said a major part of the training is teaching women to validate, not judge.
"The idea is learning how to validate emotion, not content, so it's training women how to believe their sisters." Evans said. "There's a lot of situations with sexual assault
The only person the women must report to is Evans, the CARE coordinator, who is also a confidential reporter. This means that neither the police nor the University will be informed of the assault unless the victim wants to move forward with an investigation.
I think where people go into with saying, 'Of course, I'm going to believe my sister,' but a lot of times the reality is we don't."
Part of the validation aspect is also confidentiality, a crucial component, Evans said. Women in the program are required to keep all incidents and conversations regarding sexual assault private.
Hecht also said when combatting sexual assault, there can be unique challenges in the Greek community,
"That is the main thing we discussed, is being a confidential reporter and not reporting it to someone who maybe will go and tell someone else," Hecht said. "The fear of telling one of your friends is that maybe your friend could go and tell someone else, who could tell someone else, and you just don't know if your secret can be kept private."
"There's this really huge misconception that sorority women as a whole are 'easy' and all these terrible derogatory things and stuff like that. It kind of gives sorority women a bad rep," Hecht said. "That's just not the case in a lot of ways."
particularly involving stereotypes.
"Sexual violence doesn't always occur in the Greek community, but that's what we hear a lot about in the news; they're very easy organizations to pick on," McKee said. "And so I think that some people might honestly believe that, if frat boys would stop raping drunk sorority girls, our sexual assault problems would be gone, and that's simply not the case. At all."
Jenny McKee, program coordinator for the Health Education Resource Office and one of the coordinators of the trainings, said she thinks many people believe the problem of sexual assault is isolated to only fraternities and sororities.
McKee also said she thinks the program shows the Greek community is not afraid to stand up against these false stigmas.
"It's a lot easier to walk away from an issue or not talk about it than it is to grab it by the horns and say, We're owning this," McKeen said.
The training sessions will finish by next month, and from April to December, the women will be the established CARE sisters for their chapters. Evans said the plan is to train a whole new round of women starting next January.
Long said although the program is currently only in the Panhellenic community, there has been talk to potentially expand it to other campus organizations like the scholarship halls, men's organizations and the queer community.
No plans have been formally laid for the future, but Hecht said she's ready to see where the program will lead.
"This is a new program and we are curious to see where it goes and we hope that sorority women, panhellenic women specifically, will utilize this program," Hecht said. "So we're really just going to have to see what happens after the training is over."
Edited by Mackenzie Walker
Kansas contains Buddy Hield to stay atop Big 12
Missy Minear/KANSAN Sophomore guard Devonte' Graham defends senior guard Buddy Hield in the game against Oklahoma. The Jayhawks beat the Sooners 76-72, while Graham outscored B.'s Oklahoma counterpart.
Missy Minear/KANSAN
SCOTT CHASEN
@SChasenKU
NORMAN, Okla. — Just over two hours before the No. 6 Kansas Jayhawks faced off against the No. 3 Oklahoma Sooners, Lloyd Noble Center was silent. The last students remaining from attending ESPN College GameDay earlier that morning had been ushered out, and there was little happening on the court, aside from a twirler warming up for a routine later in the day.
Oklahoma senior guard Buddy Hield emerged from the tunnel and started warming up for the game. As he started to take his first shot, he was asked to move to the other end of the court by a cleaning person. He slowly walked to the other side, only stopping to greet some people at center court.
He finally made his way to the other end, where he
began to put up shots. He was far from the knockdown shooter he'd shown himself to be all throughout the season. The probable 2015-16 Player of the Year in college basketball couldn't get a shot to fall. Even his best looks rimmed out.
However, as the woman who was cleaning the other side of the court finished up, Hield switched sides of the floor and quickly caught fire. He was locked in from the right corner, at one point knocking down 26 threes in a row.
The game that followed mirrored Hield's solo-shootaround session. In the first half, Oklahoma couldn't get a shot to fall, relying on free throws for nearly half of its points. At the break, Buddy Hield was 0-of-6 from the field and had yet to make a goal.
In the second half, Hield — and likewise the Sooners — picked up steam. They
challenged the Jayhawks, and led at various points in the contest. But every time they pulled ahead, it was Kansas guard Devonte' Graham who had the answer, as the Jayhawks topped the Sooners, 76-72.
["Graham] didn't get tired," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "He had to make every one of those [plays] for us to have a chance. I think he grew up a little bit today."
In the first period, Kansas jumped out to a 20-6 lead. Graham — with help from junior guard Frank Mason III on the occasional switch — took on the assignment of defending Hield and did an admirable job.
Hield finished the first half 0-of-6 from the floor. He failed to record a made field goal in the first half for the first time this season.
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SEE GAMER PAGE 11
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