A new campus organization, Baker Rallies against Violence (BRAV), has been formed to raise awareness about sexual assault.
The organization is made up of two different groups: peer educators and bystanders. Peer educators go through training and will go out in pairs of male and female to educate different organizations on campus about sexual assault awareness. Bystanders will be involved in helping eliminate sexual violence on campus.
Sophomore Ben Sobek, a peer educator in the group, believes that Baker needs a group like BRAV to reinforce the idea that sexual assaults and violence on campus are a reality. Sobek is confident that Baker students can count on BRAV to educate the campus on sexual assault and sexual violence, and that BRAV is a safe place to come forward for anyone who has been sexually assaulted.
“Students can expect support from us in any capacity,” Sobek said. “They can always look to us as an example.”
Junior Teresa Morse, also a peer educator, believes BRAV will effectively raise awareness of sexual violence and assault. Morse hopes that BRAV will encourage students to become more outspoken about these types of issues and is excited for BRAV to grow and to reach more students on campus.
“We want to empower everyone on campus with knowledge on sexual assault and violence,” Morse said. “And for them to actually apply that knowledge to their lives.”
Instructor of English Tamara Slankard started BRAV because she saw the need for the presence of a sexual assault awareness group on such a small campus. Slankard believes Baker’s campus size makes sexual assault even harder to talk about because everyone knows everyone and it’s harder to come forward about being assaulted.
“I want students to know that even though this is a really small campus where you can have a lot of lifelong friends,” Slankard said. “That sexual assault is a reality on college campuses everywhere, including Baker and we need to do something about it.”