Spring Break
The Daily OrangeDPS to offer free rape defense class
By Sarah Lee
Posted: 9/17/08, 1:58 AM EST Section: News
Auralisa Menjivar is afraid to walk by herself on campus after dark.
"I live off-campus, and I get scared walking at night because of attacks that have happened previously in the area," said Menjivar, a senior English and textual studies and art history major. "I never go anywhere by myself when it gets dark."
Easing that fear is one of the aims of the Rape Aggression Defense course, hosted by Syracuse University's Department of Public Safety.
The course is a nationally recognized program now in its second year at SU. The full program is 12 hours long and will run throughout the next three weeks in SkyBarn on South Campus, every Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m.
DPS Lt. Jill Lentz, one of the certified instructors for the program, said the program helps show women how to protect themselves against assaults by acquaintances and strangers.
"A few years ago, people on campus were looking for a self-defense class, so we put one together with martial arts and defense tactics at Archbold," Lentz said. "Then we looked for something more structured and found R.A.D., which a lot of campuses across the country offer."
Its consistency in structure and practice was what made the program appealing to Lentz, who said that those who took the course here would be on the same track as students taking it at other schools.
"We tell people who are taking the class that if anyone's taken a prior self-defense class or even if they've taken martial arts, everything they learned is certainly valid," Lentz said. "We're teaching them our basic core moves, but anything they've learned is not wrong, just different."
Although general interest in last year's program seemed promising during move-in day and at the public safety tables in Schine Student Center, actual student attendance for the program was relatively low in comparison, Lentz said.
"I hoped it would be more successful," Lentz said. "The interest is there, but once the classes are held, we never had a waiting list. We've done a class with as little as two people and as big as 11, which doesn't disappoint me because if two people want to take it, then it's important for them to take it, and we're going to offer it."
"I live off-campus, and I get scared walking at night because of attacks that have happened previously in the area," said Menjivar, a senior English and textual studies and art history major. "I never go anywhere by myself when it gets dark."
Easing that fear is one of the aims of the Rape Aggression Defense course, hosted by Syracuse University's Department of Public Safety.
The course is a nationally recognized program now in its second year at SU. The full program is 12 hours long and will run throughout the next three weeks in SkyBarn on South Campus, every Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m.
DPS Lt. Jill Lentz, one of the certified instructors for the program, said the program helps show women how to protect themselves against assaults by acquaintances and strangers.
"A few years ago, people on campus were looking for a self-defense class, so we put one together with martial arts and defense tactics at Archbold," Lentz said. "Then we looked for something more structured and found R.A.D., which a lot of campuses across the country offer."
Its consistency in structure and practice was what made the program appealing to Lentz, who said that those who took the course here would be on the same track as students taking it at other schools.
"We tell people who are taking the class that if anyone's taken a prior self-defense class or even if they've taken martial arts, everything they learned is certainly valid," Lentz said. "We're teaching them our basic core moves, but anything they've learned is not wrong, just different."
Although general interest in last year's program seemed promising during move-in day and at the public safety tables in Schine Student Center, actual student attendance for the program was relatively low in comparison, Lentz said.
"I hoped it would be more successful," Lentz said. "The interest is there, but once the classes are held, we never had a waiting list. We've done a class with as little as two people and as big as 11, which doesn't disappoint me because if two people want to take it, then it's important for them to take it, and we're going to offer it."
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