Title IX student arm seeks members

By Claire Weddle     2/23/16 8:17pm

A new student arm of the office of Sexual Violence and Title IX Support is searching for dedicated students to help eliminate sexual misconduct and relationship violence on campus.

At the end of spring 2015, Allison Vogt, Director of Sexual Assault Prevention and Title IX Support, and Kate Hildebrandt, Student Wellbeing Specialist, selected the executive committee for the Students Transforming Rice Into a Violence-Free Environment Coalition. Jones College junior Alma Almanza, McMurtry College sophomore Madison Blattel, Hanszen College sophomore Rachel Bowyer, Jones junior Melissa Rodriguez and McMurtry junior Madhuri Venkateswar are members of the executive committee.

Vogt said the idea for STRIVE originated from a previous student, Meghan Davenport (Lovett ‘15), who was part of a working group in summer 2014 and envisioned and developed the idea.

---

---

The program plans to create 22 STRIVE college liaisons who will be trained by the Title IX office to provide support at the college level, including hosting events. Applications opened at the end of January, and the applicants are currently in the interview process.

“The liaisons will provide input on how sexual assault manifests itself uniquely at the different residential colleges as a way to identify and change problematic aspects in each college’s respective culture,” Rodriguez, speaking for the executive committee, said.

According to Venkateswar, STRIVE fills the need to specifically address sexual violence.

“I wanted to serve on STRIVE because I thought there was a need on campus to align our efforts when it came to sexual violence prevention,” Venkateswar said. “There are many groups on campus who work on this issue but not one student organization who focuses solely on this.”

The STRIVE liaisons are similar to Rice Health Advisors with their emphasis on student well-being, but the Rodriguez said the two roles serve distinct purposes. According to Rodriguez, STRIVE is the first group on Rice to have a sole focus on the elimination of sexual misconduct and relationship violence and is also the only student-driven initiative from the Title IX office.

“While the RHAs are trained in general physical, emotional and mental well-being, their training is not focused on eliminating sexual assault or relationship violence,” Rodriguez said. “The role [of the liaisons] is to act as a source of information regarding policies and the channels by which students can report sexual or relationship violence.”

STRIVE aims to eliminate sexual and relationship violence by providing the information and tools to create change. Vogt said she hopes STRIVE will be a long-term initiative.

“It is our hope the coalition will continue to grow, adding as many students that wish to be a part of the group, so that the goal of making Rice a violence-free environment can be achieved,” Vogt said.

---