Column: Lifesavers, a spotlight on SAAVI
Editor’s note: This column was updated on March 2 at 6:20 p.m. to adhere to AP Style guidelines.
February is by-and-large considered to be the month of love. Students and faculty alike busy themselves with pursuits both romantic and platonic. Be it chocolates, flowers or an evening dinner with friends, many of us breach the other side of Valentine’s a little bit warmer inside. But for a sizable portion of those on campus, it can be an unpleasant reminder of hardships.
Citing both RAINN and Madera Community College, sexual abuse rates amongst undergraduates are uncomfortably high, with 25% of female students, 21% of gender non-conforming students and 7% of male students experiencing sexual assault during their college careers. The numbers are even higher for sexual harassment, with over 40% of all students having been harassed at least once.
Survivors have long been forced into an uphill struggle, combatting roadblocks to justice, such as cultural norms that encourage silence and complacency, the stigma and marginalization that reporters may face and the difficulties in navigating a legal system in which less than 3% of incidents see justice; RAINN states that for every 1,000 sexual assaults, only 28 perpetrators are convicted.
For students attending Utah State, a suite of resources is available for students and employees navigating the trauma of enduring such an event, four of which are confidential: Counseling and Prevention Services, the Mind-Body Bridging Clinic, the Student Health & Wellness Center and the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information Office.
Located in Room 311 of the TSC, the SAAVI Office is home to USU’s team of victim advocates, whose job it is to provide support and resources to those who have experienced sexual abuse or violence, regardless of whether it happened on or off campus.
Chief among them is Jenny Erazo, the office’s interim executive director. For over a decade, she’s been responsible for SAAVI’s daily operations, including training new staff members and ensuring their certifications are up to date. She said her favorite part of the job is working directly with students.
“It’s valuable for us — students, faculty, staff, folks who have experienced harm — to have a confidential space, to come understand what their rights are and what options are available to them and to talk about what they’ve experienced and really understand what it is,” Erazo said. “I think that the services we provide here are absolutely invaluable.”
USU’s designated confidential resources are those designed to provide support for students while maintaining their privacy so long as a claimant wishes.
“Most employees across the USU system are what are called mandated reporters,” Erazo said. “They’re required to report sexual misconduct or other forms of harm that are shared with them. But at SAAVI, we’re not required to report that information. Folks can come here, and what they say here stays here.”
Aelin Smith, one of the office’s student volunteers, said this sense of security is one of the reasons she’s so passionate about SAAVI’s work.
“They’re going to believe you,” Smith said in an interview with The Utah Statesman. “There’s a really big barrier for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, especially with the stigmas surrounding sexual violence. They tend to take your struggles more seriously from what I’ve found because they’re really educated.”
According to Ashleigh Totten, a victim advocate and the office’s outreach & prevention coordinator, greater outreach has led to more people being aware of SAAVI’s services and their unique position as a designated confidential resource. This, in turn, has led to SAAVI planning and hosting more events for campus-goers to participate in — her favorite of which happened last fall.
“We did the Clothesline Project in October,” Totten said. “That project is very near and dear to my heart. I’ve done it many, many times on other campuses.”
Totten said she feels the activities the office hosts are an important way to blend the voices of survivors, advocates and peers, helping to bring together a sense of community and support for survivors on campus.
“We just kicked off Healthy Love Latte in the Forum, and some of the proceeds from those drinks will go directly into the SAAVI Survivor Fund to support USU students and faculty that are survivors of domestic and sexual violence,” Totten said.
Among other upcoming events are Brackets & Boundaries and the Safe Spring Break Fair, both of which are slated for March. The Take Back the Night will be hosted in partnership with Alpha Chi Omega in April.
Even with the benefits of being well-connected, Erazo said at times, the hardest part of working at SAAVI is being part of a larger system that may not be as oriented to survivor’s needs.
“Trying to navigate survivor needs and trauma-informed approaches while simultaneously having to navigate inside a system that isn’t always set up — oftentimes by no fault of the system — but isn’t set up to be as trauma-informed or survivor-friendly as it needs to be has been probably the most difficult thing,” Erazo said.
Erazo said funding issues and high turnover are challenges that are hard to tackle.
“Every time we lose staff, we have to work really hard to get folks in here who are trained and qualified,” Erazo said. “The work we do is unique in that we’re engaging with systems across a person’s entire life. We work with legal folks. We work with medical folks. We work with Title IX and with folks in the community — all facets that are impacted by violence.”
Even with the challenges they face, both Erazo and Totten said they truly love the work that they do, most especially the impact that they’re able to have on the well-being of survivors.
“It’s an honor for me and our staff to be able to share space with folks who’ve experienced arguably some of the worst moments of their life and that they trust us and allow us to be part of their journey,” Erazo said. “It feels good to share that.”
The SAAVI Office is located on the southwest side of the TSC in Room 311. It’s open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.