To better convey its services, the R.A.P.E. Center is looking for student input in forming a new name, which is anticipated to be in place by the end of the semester.

‘We’ve had people come in that weren’t sure this is the right place for them, and then I wonder about all the people who don’t come because they see that name and feel that it’s not the appropriate place for them,’ said Janet Epstein, the center’s associate director.

Student focus groups gathered in the basement of the Health Services building last Monday to discuss the change, which could signal the center to redefine its core mission. The meeting was held to make sure a broad range of student voices were heard, Epstein said.

The center’s current name, ‘Rape: Advocacy, Prevention and Education,’ does not reflect the full scope of the services the center offers, Epstein said. The R.A.P.E. Center, established in 1990, has two objectives: to provide support services for sexual assault survivors and to coordinate and oversee sexual assault prevention programs, according to the center’s website.

The center also addresses issues such as relationship violence, domestic abuse, stalking, nonconsensual touching and verbal abuse, Epstein said.

The center first began considering a name change last year, Epstein said. With a new name, the center hopes to incorporate both parts of its mission while maintaining the identity of the center, Epstein said.

‘The goal is to find a name that is going to take into account all the different types of situations that might lead someone to need the support that we can provide,’ she said.

Samantha Lifson, president of Students Advocating Sexual Safety and Empowerment, said in an e-mail that the current name is a confusing acronym because it requires a colon for it to make sense, and some people don’t want to classify their experiences as rape.

‘People who have been involved in domestic violence or other types of harassment may not want to use the word ‘rape’ to describe what happened to them,’ said Lifson, a senior advertising and women’s studies major. ‘A name change would better encompass everything that the center provides.’

The word ‘safe’ was mentioned often when the student focus groups met and brainstormed, Lifson said.

‘At the forum, the word ‘safe’ kept coming up — it really hits what the center wants to position itself as,’ Lifson said. ‘We didn’t decide on that word specifically, but it kept appearing in our ideas.’

It is challenging to pick a suitable name for a center that offers wide-ranging services and addresses touchy subjects, Lifson said.

Seth Finkelstein, a junior mechanical engineering major and co-president of A Men’s Issue, said because of the current name, students see the center as a provider of just one aspect of its mission: help services for rape victims.

‘People initially think they can only go there if they’re raped,’ Finkelstein said.

The center needs to be careful implementing the change and selecting a better replacement, Finkelstein said. But the center should still provide rape services to students who need them, regardless of the name, he said.

Epstein said the center will not shy away from its responsibility of providing services to help those who have been affected by rape and said ‘rape’ should remain in the center’s name.

‘It’s really important to say the word because it’s silenced,’ Epstein said. ‘There’s not a whole lot of conversation about rape and the issues that are related.’

Alison Kurtzman, a member of a theater group, Every Five Minutes, that raises awareness about rape and sexual assault, said the center has been trying to expand and convey information about other kinds of violence issues besides rape, such as domestic abuse. The theater group is run through the R.A.P.E. Center.

‘We’ve been trying to branch out,’ said Kurtzman, a junior broadcast journalism and psychology major. ‘We’re really trying to broaden the services that we offer.’

It might be difficult to get students who are already familiar with the center and its name to change their ideas about it, Kurtzman said. A name change will be helpful once the word is out and more people feel invited to approach the center with different problems, she said.

Kurtzman said the name change would help prevent conflicts that could escalate into rape, she said.

‘Domestic abuse might turn into rape,’ Kurtzman said. ‘They’re very interconnected.’

chlevin@syr.edu

 

 

 

 

Published on February 20, 2011 at 12:00 pm