NSO sexual violence session sees changes

Penn is introducing a new format for the sexual violence prevention training during New Student Orientation this year. The program will be run by Speak About It — a performance group that presents “about consent, boundaries and healthy relationships,” according to its website. Here’s a rundown of things you should know about the presentation and sexual violence at Penn.

• The sexual violence prevention session will now last an hour — much longer than in previous years — and cover topics about sexual health and sexual violence prevention. In previous years, the sexual violence presentation was tacked on to the end of the Safe Living presentation.

• NSO is a primary source of information on resources for victims of sexual assault. A Daily Pennsylvanian poll from last fall found that 65 percent of undergraduates learned how to get help after an assault during NSO.

• The DP poll also found that knowledge of campus resources was relatively low. Only 19 percent of undergraduates knew that Penn has a trained rape crisis victim advocate.

• Speak About It will perform at over 20 colleges this year, including Harvard, Brown and Cornell universities, and customizes its script for each school.

• The training session will ensure that the University is in compliance with new federal standards for sexual violence education.

• The University recently proposed changes to its Sexual Violence Policy, which would add specific definition of relationship violence, domestic violence and stalking to the policy banning sexual violence among faculty, staff, students and visitors to campus.

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