Mission
The PATH to Care Center leads the efforts to transform our campus into a community that is free of sexual violence, sexual harassment, intimate partner violence, and stalking through prevention, advocacy, training, and healing. We collaborate with the campus community to make social change with the goals of preventing, intervening in, and responding to harassment and violence, eliminating oppression, and creating the culture and environment we all aspire to and deserve.
Vision
We envision a campus community free of violence and grounded in social justice. This vision will be realized when every member of our community is a beacon of support and respect for those around them.
To be delete:
Violence and harassment happen in many different ways. Here are some examples, but this isn’t a complete list.
- An acquaintance or classmate texting you about dating or hooking up repeatedly, without a response or after you’ve asked them not to:
A friend in your class, who’s part of a study group among you and your other classmates, has begun texting you many times per day, which sometimes include sexual jokes about you or other members of your group, as well as asking you repeatedly to hook up. You’ve responded to some of them to say you are not interested. Class and the study group have become very uncomfortable for you. - An acquaintance or classmate texting you about dating or hooking up repeatedly, without a response or after you’ve asked them not to:
You joined Greek life earlier this semester and have been really enjoying your time with your new fraternity brothers. You spend most weekends out with them. One weekend, when your fraternity is hosting a party, one of your brothers corners you in the kitchen and begins groping you, and begs you not to tell anyone. You’re scared and uncomfortable, and you freeze. You don’t say anything. He continues touching you until someone else finally comes into the kitchen. - Being forced to do sexual things with someone. Force can be physical, and can also happen through coercion or threats. For example, someone implying that unless you have oral sex with them, they will spread rumors about you, or out you as LGBTQ to your friends.
You have been questioning your gender identity, and have not told anyone in your social circle about any of this. In the locker room after a soccer scrimmage, your friend and teammate approaches you and begins touching your body in ways that make you uncomfortable. You feel uncomfortable asking him to stop, and he continues. A few days later, in the same locker room, he forces you into oral sex. You worry that telling your friends about these experiences will draw attention to the fact that you are questioning your gender identity, and feel unsure of what to do. - Being touched inappropriately by a friend, classmate, student, teammate, housemate, GSI, co-worker, supervisor, coach, or anyone else:
You are a junior who identifies as female and LGBT, and you date other female-identified folks, but many of your peers don’t know you identify that way. Another woman in your dorm who is openly dating women is bullied often, as others in the dorm leave harassing notes on her door, so you decide not to talk about your sexuality with friends or anyone in your dorm. After class one day, while waiting to head back to your dorm, your female acquaintance touches you sexually in ways you are not comfortable with. You ask her to stop, and she threatens to tell others that you are not heterosexual. You are worried about being harassed the way your hallmate was, and worried about others knowing what your female friend has done to you, so you decide not to tell anyone.