Discussion List for campus-based and allied personnel working to end gender-based violence on campus.

["Hilary Merlin" <>]

I am no longer at the University of Georgia Health Center.  If you wish to 
reach me personally, please email me at 
.
  If you need assistance with the Raltionship and Sexual Violens Program, 
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Subject: Homeless on Campus, by Eleanor J. Bader
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A visitor to our website (see "reply to" above) sent you this e-mail in order 
to share the following item from

The Progressive magazine
http://www.progressive.org

The Progressive | July 2004 Issue
Homeless on Campus
by Eleanor J. Bader

Aesha is a twenty-year-old in her last semester at Kingsborough Community 
College in Brooklyn, New York. Until the fall of 2003, Aesha lived with five 
people--her year-old son, her son's father, her sister, her mother, and her 
mother's boyfriend--in a three-bedroom South Bronx apartment. Things at home 
were fine until her child's father became physically abusive. Shortly 
thereafter, Aesha realized that she and her son had to leave the unit.

After spending thirty days in a temporary shelter, they landed at the city's 
emergency assistance unit (EAU). "It was horrible," Aesha says. "We slept on 
benches, and it was very crowded. I was so scared I sat on my bag and held 
onto the stroller day and night, from Friday to Monday." Aesha and her son 
spent several nights in the EAU before being sent to a hotel. Sadly, this 
proved to be a temporary respite. After a few days, they were returned to the 
EAU, where they remained until they were finally moved to a family shelter in 
Queens.

Although Aesha believes that she will be able to stay in this facility until 
she completes her associate's degree in June, the ordeal of being homeless 
has taken a toll on her and her studies. "I spend almost eight hours a day on 
the trains," she says. "I have to leave the shelter at 5:00 a.m. for the 
Bronx where my girlfriend watches my son for me. I get to her house around 
7:00. Then I have to travel to school in Brooklyn--the last stop on the train 
followed by a bus ride--another two hours away."

Reluctantly, Aesha felt that she had no choice but to confide in teachers and 
explain her periodic absences. "They've all said that as long as I keep up 
with the work I'll be OK," she says. But that is not easy for Aesha or other 
homeless students.

Adriana Broadway lived in ten places, with ten different families, during 
high school. A native of Sparks, Nevada, Broadway told the LeTendre Education 
Fund for Homeless Children, a scholarship program administered by the 
National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, that 
she left home when she was thirteen. "For five years, I stayed here and there 
with friends," she wrote on her funding application. "I'd stay with whoever 
would take me in and allow me to live under their roof."

Johnny Montgomery also became homeless in his early teens. He told LeTendre 
staffers that his mother threw him out because he did not get along with her 
boyfriend. "She chose him over me," he wrote. "Hard days and hard nights have 
shaped me." Much of that time was spent on the streets.

Asad Dahir has also spent time on the streets. "I've been homeless more than 
one time and in more than one country," Dahir wrote on his scholarship 
application. Originally from Somalia, he and his family fled their homeland 
due to civil war and ended up in a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya. After 
more than year in the camp, he and his thirteen-year-old brother were 
resettled, first in Atlanta, Georgia, and later in Ohio. There, high housing 
costs once again rendered the pair homeless.

Broadway, Montgomery and Dahir are three of the 44 homeless students from 
across the country who have been awarded LeTendre grants since 1999. Thanks, 
in part, to these funds, all three are currently attending college and doing 
well.

But few homeless students are so lucky. "Each year at our national 
conference, homeless students come forward to share their stories," says Jenn 
Hecker, the organizing director of the National Student Campaign Against 
Hunger and Homelessness. "What often comes through is shame. Most feel as 
though they should be able to cover their costs." Such students usually try 
to blend in and are reluctant to disclose either their poverty or 
homelessness to others on campus, she says. Hecker blames rising housing 
costs for the problem and cites a 2003 survey that found the median wage 
needed to pay for a two-bedroom apartment in the United States to be $15.21, 
nearly three times the federal minimum.

Even when doubled up, students in the most expensive states--Massachusetts, 
California, New Jersey, New York and Maryland--are scrambling. "In any given 
semester, there are four or five families where the head of household is in 
college," says Beth Kelly, a family service counselor at the Clinton Family 
Inn, a New York City transitional housing program run by Homes for the 
Homeless.

And the Inn is not an anomaly. Advocates for the homeless report countless 
examples of students sleeping in their cars and sneaking into a school gym to 
shower and change clothes. They speak of students who couch surf or camp in 
the woods--bicycling or walking to classes--during temperate weather. Yet, 
for all the anecdotes, details about homeless college students are hazy.

"I wish statistics existed on the number of homeless college students there 
are," says Barbara Duffield, executive director of National Association for 
the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. "Once state and federal 
responsibility to homeless kids stops--at the end of high school--it's as if 
they cease to exist. They fall off the map."

Worse, they are neither counted nor attended to.

"Nobody has ever thought about this population or collected data on them 
because nobody thinks they are a priority to study," says Martha Burt, 
principal research associate at the Urban Institute.

Critics say colleges are not doing enough to meet--or even recognize--the 
needs of this group.

"The school should do more," says Aesha. "They have a child care center on my 
campus, but they only accept children two and up. It would have helped if I 
could've brought my son to day care at school." She also believes that the 
college should maintain emergency housing for homeless students.

"As an urban community college, our students are commuters," responds Uda 
Bradford, interim dean of student affairs at Kingsborough Community College. 
"Therefore, our student support services are developed within that framework."

"As far as I know, no college has ever asked for help in reaching homeless 
students," says Mary Jean LeTendre, a retired Department of Education 
administrator and creator of the LeTendre Education Fund. "Individual 
colleges have come forward to help specific people, but there is nothing 
systematic like there is for students in elementary and high school."

"There is a very low awareness level amongst colleges," Duffield adds. 
"People have this 'you can pull yourself up by your boot straps' myth about 
college. There is a real gap between the myth and the reality for those who 
are trying to overcome poverty by getting an education."

Part of the problem is that the demographics of college attendance have 
changed. "Most educational institutions were set up to serve fewer, less 
diverse, more privileged students," wrote Andrea Leskes of the Association of 
American Colleges and Universities in the group's 2002 annual report. "As a 
result, we are not successfully educating all the students who come to 
college today. This means that nontraditional students--the older, returning 
ones as well as those from low-income or other disenfranchised 
communities--often receive fewer tangible support services than they would 
like.

"It's not that colleges are not concerned, but attention today is not on 
serving the poor," says Susan O'Malley, chair of the faculty senate at the 
City University of New York. "It's not in fashion. During the 1960s, people 
from all over the country were going to Washington and making a lot of noise. 
The War on Poverty was influenced by this noise. Now the poor are less 
visible."

Mary Gesing, a counselor at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 
agrees. "Nothing formal exists for this population, and the number of 
homeless students on campus is not tracked," she says. Because of this 
statistical gap, programs are not devised to accommodate homeless students or 
address their needs.

Despite these programmatic shortfalls, Gesing encounters two to three 
homeless students--often single parents--each semester. Some became homeless 
when they left an abuser; others lost their housing because they could no 
longer pay for it due to a lost job, the termination of unemployment 
benefits, illness, the cessation of child support, or drug or alcohol abuse.

Kirkwood's approach is a "patchwork system," Gesing explains, and homeless 
students often drop out or fail classes because no one knows of their plight. 
"When people don't know who to come to for help they just fade away," she 
says.

"Without housing, access to a work space, or access to a shower, students' 
lives suffer, their grades suffer, and they are more likely to drop classes, 
if not withdraw entirely from school. I've seen it happen," says Amit Rai, an 
English professor at a large, public university in Florida. "If seen from the 
perspective of students, administrators would place affordable housing and 
full access to health care at the top of what a university should provide."

Yet for all this, individual teachers--as well as administrators and 
counselors--can sometimes make an enormous difference.

BR, a faculty member who asked that neither her name nor school be disclosed, 
has allowed several homeless students to sleep in her office during the past 
decade. "Although there is no institutional interest or involvement in 
keeping these students enrolled, a few faculty members really care about the 
whole student and don't shy away from helping," she says.

One of the students she sheltered lived in the space for three months, 
whenever she couldn't stay with friends. Like Aesha, this student was fleeing 
a partner who beat her. Another student had been kicked out of the dorm 
because her stepfather never paid the bill. She applied for financial 
assistance to cover the cost, but processing took months. "This student 
stayed in my office for an entire semester," BR says.

A sympathetic cleaning woman knew what was going on and turned a blind eye to 
the arrangement. "Both students showered in the dorms and kept their 
toothbrushes and cosmetics in one of the two department bathrooms which I 
gave them keys to," BR adds. "The administration never knew a thing. Both of 
the students finished school and went on to become social workers. They knew 
that school would be their saving grace, that knowledge was the only thing 
that couldn't be snatched."

-- Eleanor J. Bader had the privilege of teaching Aesha in the fall 2003 
semester. In addition to working as an adjunct instructor, she's a free-lance 
writer and the co-author of "Targets of Hatred: Anti-Abortion Terrorism."

http://www.progressive.org
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Subject: Despite Gains, Prosecution of Rape Still a Tough Task
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This story was sent to you by: S. Daniel Carter

This article from today's LA Times offers a discussion of problems with 
sexual assault prosecutions.

--------------------
Despite Gains, Prosecution of Rape Still a Tough Task
--------------------

Changes in the law have aided victims, but juries often remain skeptical. 
Many want evidence of verbal protest or physical resistance.

By Cynthia Daniels
Times Staff Writer

July 23 2004

Humiliation, guilt and pain haunt many sexual assault victims, but it is 
frustration that plagues Renee.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-onthelaw23jul23,1,7314845.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Visit Latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com
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I am out of the office until August 9, 2004.  
If you need immediate assistance, please call 315/443-7273.
Thank you.

Janet Epstein
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From: Molly Dragiewicz 
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Subject: Excellent rape prevention program and materials
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Hi All,

The emails asking about "No More/1 in 4" have inspired me to let you know
about a program that is excellent for sexual assault and other gender
violence prevention. I believe that it avoids what I consider to be the
serious weaknesses and costs of the No More/One in Four/John Foubert
approach (published critiques of which are easily available via a Google
search so I won't rehash them here).

Men Can Stop Rape's programming is truly prevention oriented, acknowledges
the need for students and staff to look inward first to begin to address
sexual assault, acknowledges gender in an appropriate and meaningful way,
and is conducive to cooperation with existing rape services and education
that are likely to already exist on campus and in the community.

This is an email that I originally sent to CAVNET a couple of weeks ago. I
feel strongly that people on this list should know about this and other
alternatives to No More. This email is about MCSR's DC training, but they
travel to campuses across the country to do shorter trainings and
presentations as well...

I just got back from the Men Can Stop Rape training
"Visible Allies: Engaging Men in Preventing Sexism and Sexual Violence"
(3 days in DC) and it was fantastic.

The training provided skills, information, tools and tactics that those of
us working on violence prevention can use. The training focused on working
with men on sexual assault, but is applicable to any audience and much of
the content could be applied to multiple educational topics from dating
violence to media literacy.

It was well organized, packed with practical information, right on target
as a prevention message, and loaded with thought provoking discussion about
the relationship between gender norms and sexual assault (as well as other
forms of violence). The participants had varied backgrounds and experience
on the subject and the training provided a lot that all of use could take
home and use, from those just learning about gender to those who have been
in the violence field for 10+ years.

I cannot recommend this training or the organization highly enough. If you
work with adolescents through adults, I strongly advise that you look into
attending a training or at least look into the training manual they
provided (I believe they are in the process of updating it). They generally
do one training in DC in the winter and one in summer, but also travel to
other locations throughout the year.

As you may recall,  I had been looking for materials I could use to train
my peer educators and I finally have them thanks to this training.

I'd be happy to discuss my experiences at the training with anyone who
wants more information.
Please check out their website and learn more about this organization

http://www.mencanstoprape.org/


Molly Dragiewicz
Director
Women's Resource Center
Bucknell University

(570) 577 1375