Anti-Violence+Briefing

Briefing The American College Health Association challenges universities to work to end oppressions and bias-related forms of violence including sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, bullying, hate crimes, hazing, celebratory violence, assault, aggravated assault, attempted suicide, suicide, manslaughter, and murder. It is imperative that universities and surrounding communities are safe in order for students to engage in higher learning; safety meaning to include integrity, respect, multicultural inclusion, and equality rather than the limited definition of risk of personal injury (Carr, 2005).
 * Anti-Violence Work Group**

We believe that in order for us to make a true and lasting impact on violence at UCF we must first implement a climate survey on violence to gauge how students 1)define violence, 2)view violence at UCF and the surrounding community, and 3)if they themselves feel safe in their day-to-day activities. Focus groups with select special interest groups on campus should accompany the survey to gain a more qualitative, in-depth understanding of how violence affects various groups on campus with varying amounts of privilege and hence, power. To prepare for this campus wide anti-violence initiative, we have already begun to gather an inventory of information on services, resources and events that departments are already implementing in order to serve our students.

__Strengths__ 1)UCF’s unwavering commitment to student’s success, 2)multiple programs already being implemented to prevent violence and assist those in our community that have been touched by violence, and 3)we already have a blue print of recommendations from the Sexual Violence Prevention Task Force __Weaknesses__ 1)UCF lacks a unified definition of violence, 2)we have a lack of coordination of campus programs in addressing issues of violence, and 3)absence of a comprehensive strategic initiative to address violence __Opportunities__ 1)having Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP) program and Jeffrey O’Brien from MVP National on campus, 2)assisting in the creation of a registered student organization with an overarching goal of addressing all forms of violence, and 3)the many community connections that we have in Orlando __Threats__ 1)critical resources, 2)competing priorities and working within an atmosphere that at times can be more reactionary, and 3)the complex nature of the various forms of violence

This Anti-Violence Work Group has made initial recommendations, which begin with revisiting the Sexual Violence Prevention Task Force and prioritizing the twenty recommendations put forth from their final report. Secondly, putting together a permanent task force to examine and address all forms of violence at UCF and around the surrounding community. And lastly, we recommend that the task force group work on the creation and implementation of a climate survey on violence.