Responding to recently announced changes in the administration
of sexual assault services, students and advocates met yesterday to
voice opposition to the proposed plan.

Held in the chambers of the Michigan Student Assembly, the
meeting — organized by the newly-formed Our Voices Count,
“a coalition dedicated to preserving SAPAC’s mission
and services” — sought to educate students on the
effects of the changes and enlist students in ways to oppose plans
to reorganize the Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness
Center.

SAPAC, along with Counseling and Psychological Services and the
community-based SAFE House, announced that it would change its
counseling and crisis intervention services yesterday. University
administrators said the changes will streamline its response to
incidents involving sexual assault and domestic violence. No
changes will take effect until this summer.

As one major change, SAPAC’s two counselors will be
transferred to work full-time at CAPS — a move intended to
lessen the burden of ongoing counseling and strengthen education
and advocacy.

But some students view the changes — allegedly made
without student input — as detrimental to survivors of sexual
assault.

CAPS, opponents contend, does not have the feeling of comfort
and safety that exists at SAPAC. Since CAPS, located in the
Michigan Union, could provide counseling to perpetrators of sexual
assault, survivors are not assured “that in seeking help they
will not accidentally come face-to-face with their own
violator,” according to a pamphlet.

“It’s very easy to run into a stalker in a
university setting,” said LSA senior Mia White, who organized
last night’s meeting. White said that stalking is a prominent
issue that SAPAC currently grapples with.

Students are also concerned about CAPS’ restriction on the
number of sessions available to students. Opponents of the changes
cite that CAPS restricts the number of sessions to 8 to10. Once a
survivor has concluded these sessions, they are referred to an
off-campus provider, whom they must pay.

CAPS’ policy “is to offer brief (short-term)
counseling, which enables (them) to provide services to greater
number of students,” according the center’s website.
The number of prescribed session, however, can vary depending on
the case.

University administrators said that transferring services from
SAPAC to CAPS would allow SAPAC to focus on education and advocacy.
SAPAC Director Kelly Cichy has said in previous interviews that it
is “therapeutically very important” to separate
counseling and advocacy work.

As part of its advocacy function, SAPAC helps survivors work
with professors and housing, along with the various legal and
administrative processes involved in these situations.

By relieving SAPAC of much of its counseling obligations,
University administrators said students would receive better
service. In the past, SAPAC has had to waitlist students for
counseling or refer them to outside, off-campus organizations.

But Lara Brooks, a survivor and outreach advocate with the
non-profit organization First Step, said there are some
disadvantages to the “fragmentation of services.”

“I think it’s really important to maintain expertise
— especially in sexually assault crisis counseling,”
Brooks said. She stressed the importance of having one composite
organization on campus, a safe place where students could go to get
counseling and advocacy without having to recount their traumatic
experience more than once.

When Brooks was a student at the University, she sought out the
services at SAPAC, an experience that was essential to her
“growth as human being.”

“Essentially, it’s completely changed my
life,” she said. Brooks now works as a social worker,
“helping people who are going through the same
trauma.”

With three organizations administering services — the SAFE
House, SAPAC and CAPS — opponents are concerned about the
psychological repercussions of survivors having to recount their
experience to numerous people and organization.

“Having one centralized place (is) a key element in
this,” said RC senior Matt Hollerbach, who attended the
meeting. “I think that, having spoken to and being friends
with (rape and sexual assault survivors), it makes them feel like
survivors instead of victims.”

White said that survivors could have to recount their experience
as many as four times in the process of receiving counseling,
advocacy and crisis intervention. “When you walk into CAPS,
you’ll have to identify yourself as a survivor of whatever
happened to you,” she said.