UConn students who remember the highly publicized sexual assault incident of Spring Weekend 2008 may be surprised to learn that there will be no significant changes made to sexual assault prevention and awareness programs for Spring Weekend 2009.
Aside from their annual Take Back the Night event, the Women's Center has no plans to take any additional action in sexual assault prevention this weekend, according to Violence Against Women Prevention Program (VAWPP) teaching assistant Alison Berk.
"In all honesty, the Women's Center isn't really doing anything different," said Berk.
Berk said the Women's Center "tries to prevent sexual assault all year long, not just during Spring Weekend" because it's a constant problem that is not specific to this particular weekend.
The Women's Center concentrates its efforts on using education to prevent sexual assault, specifically VAWPP. VAWPP is an education and advocacy-based program dedicated to preventing sexual violence, according to the Center's Web page.
Many students have expressed a desire to see a more active response from university organizations this weekend in terms of sexual assault prevention. For the past two years, more than half of all Spring Weekend arrests have not been UConn students, according to Daily Campus archives. Given the additional threat posed by Spring Weekend visitors, students believe the typical education and advocacy methods are not sufficient.
"[The Women's Center] not doing anything because it's a year-round problem concerns me," said Chris Mattera, a 4th-semester political science major. "Why wouldn't they increase services to women that might be at risk? … Now's the time that action is most necessary [because] an increase in volume and the amount of people increases the likelihood of an attack."
"I definitely think that there is a much greater risk of assault during Spring Weekend," said Akanksha Bajaj, a 4th-semester political science and accounting double major. "While I understand that [the Women's Center] deals with this all year round, this is when it is most important since this is when assault is most prevalent. I also think that it's not solely their responsibility; other organizations should definitely get involved as well."
Students will have greater access to Student Health Services this weekend, as they have in years past, according to Student Health Services director Michael Kurland. Health services will not close this weekend, and a number of nurses and doctors will always be on site.
Even in light of last year's assault, there will be no change between this year's services and those offered last year.
"We're not doing anything differently than we've done in the past," Kurland said.
Health services will be available to provide students with the necessary resources should any students find themselves in need of professional assistance.
"What we primarily do in terms of Spring Weekend is taking care of students after the fact," Kurland said.
But after last year's very real wake-up call to the threat of sexual assault during Spring Weekend at UConn, students seem disappointed that there has been little effort to impose stricter prevention programs.
"It's a sociological problem, really," Mattera said. "You increase the population, you increase the risk. Why wouldn't you increase the response?"
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