News
Hocking College Receives Title IX Grant For Sexual Violence Awareness
By: Susan Tebben
Posted on:
Hocking College has received one of nine grants for Ohio colleges to change the campus climate when it comes to sexual violence.
Dr. Betty Young, president of the college, announced receipt of a $15,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Higher Education at the Hocking College Board of Trustees meeting. It’s part of the state’s “Transforming Campus Climate” initiative, according to a release by the college.
“Sexual violence is something (colleges) need to talk about more,” Young told trustees.
The project through which Hocking College received the funds is the Prevention, Education and Application through Collaborative Effort (PEACE) initiative.
“Through this project, Hocking College plans to work with local victim’s advocacy groups to increase prevention efforts and to better respond to acts of sexual violence when they occur,” a release about the grant stated.
Hocking College dealt with an alleged sex offense in September 2015, when a woman claimed she had been raped by multiple men on the college’s campus. Investigators later said they found no evidence to charge anyone in the case.
The college plans to use the funds to grow the Title IX program and create “a campus culture free of sexual violence where students are comfortable talking about sexual violence awareness and are able to focus on learning,” Young said in a statement after the meeting.
Two mandatory sexual violence awareness seminars and an optional bystander training program have been added to the college’s “Cornerstone” program, a required program for first-year students, according to the release.
Other colleges and universities that received the grant monies included Bowling Green State University, Kent State University and Wright State University.