Violence Intervention, Prevention & Early Response
2007-2008 Annual Report
VIPER as it Relates to the Mission of Southwestern Oklahoma State University
VIPER supports the University goal of ensuring that our students receive a quality education by helping to maintain a safe educational environment. It is also our goal to continually address areas within the campus community that may need to be altered to preserve the safety and well-being of SWOSU students.
VIPER addresses the University goal of committing to student development in that we will educate all incoming students about the dangers and effects of violent relational crime such as sexual assault, intimate partner abuse and stalking. By educating our students, we will support the development of a healthy campus community by contributing to the personal development of SWOSU students.
VIPER will contribute to fulfilling Southwestern’s role as a cultural and educational resource for western Oklahoma by extending such education and training, as well as services offered, to staff, faculty and administration in addition to providing services to students on both SWOSU campuses in order to participate in the development of the campus community entirely. By doing so, VIPER will reach community members throughout this region of the state. VIPER will meet people where they are to initiate conversation and education surrounding violent relational crime and its relationship to current cultural and social mores. Thus, VIPER will provide a variety of presentations and events to meet the needs of our diverse academic organization.
Summary of Services
VIPER is a program designed to effectively minimize the incidence of violent relational crime such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence/abuse, and stalking on SWOSU’s campus. In an effort to do so, we provide referrals for students and community members to local and campus resources, as needed. VIPER also coordinates and maintains a Community Education Response Team (CERT), coordinates information sharing between response agencies, maintains mandatory prevention education programs, provides training for campus police, and trains SWOSU staff, faculty, and students to recognize signs of violence.
2007-2008 Goals
VIPER objectives include creating a coordinated community response team, establishing a mandatory prevention and education program, training campus police, training judicial boards and maintaining data from a campus-wide survey over the course of the initial 3 year project.
Since beginning the program on our campus in February, VIPER established itself on campus as a student resource, educated incoming students’ parents about the program, trained several SWOSU employees on the program and how to work effectively to refer students in need and sent two members of our campus police to training as well as having completed several monthly timeline goals.
2008-2009 Goals
VIPER objectives for the entire 3 year grant remain creating a coordinated community response team, establishing a mandatory prevention and education program, training campus police, training judicial boards and maintaining data from a campus-wide survey over the course of the project.
Over the course of the 2008-2009 school year, we will continue to hold CERT meetings, continue sending our campus police officers to training, and continue educating students and staff about the program and the issues that we address. In addition to that, we will begin implementing the mandatory prevention and education program, administer the perception survey and compile results and train resident advisors and potential judicial board members as to how they might serve victims and survivors of violent relational crimes in the residence halls. We will continue to work with the campus community to create an environment at Southwestern that will not tolerate violent relational crime, but that promotes healthy relationships both on and of campus.
