SUNY Oswego and its Athletes are Breaking the Silence About Sexual Assault
Every Oswego athlete begins their career watching the same video.
“A college age relationship from its euphoric beginnings to its tragic ends.”
This is how Title IX coordinator Lisa Evaneski describes the relationship in a film freshman athletes at SUNY Oswego watch during an escalation workshop. The workshop is an educational program about domestic violence and teaches athletes the warning signs to look out for.
Junior athlete Lacey Woite remembers attending the workshop and says the video was eye opening.
“The talking portion was good because it forced people to actually talk about a topic no one really wants to acknowledge,” Woite said.
Nearly two thirds of college students experience sexual harassment and more than ninety percent of sexual assault victims on college campuses do not report the assault.
Sexual assault is a topic even the victims don’t want to acknowledge.
Sexual assault is a nationwide problem but at SUNY Oswego, the athletic department has taken many measures to not be another statistic.
Lisa Evaneski is the Title IX coordinator at Oswego. Title IX bans sex discrimination but it also prohibits sexual harassment, including sexual violence and sexual assault. Evaneski and her office are in charge of many educational programs that the student athletes attend.
“Lisa Evaneski attends all of our fall compliance meetings.” Director of Athletics Sue Viscomi said. “She in effect meets with all of our coaches and athletes in the fall. She introduces herself, she discusses the purposes of her office specifically as it relates to sexual violence in particular.”
Freshman athletes attend an escalation workshop which is a, “brief film and a discussion.” Evaneski said.
A 2002 study revealed that sixty-three percent of men at one university who self-reported acts qualifying as rape or attempted rape admitted to committing repeat rapes.
Sexual assault on college campuses is a problem and many national cases involved athletes of members of a University’s athletic program. Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner sexually assaulted an unconscious women behind on dumpster on Stanford’s campus.
Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar are names well known for the horrific acts that they committed.
Educating athletes about the warning signs is an important step to keeping the community at SUNY Oswego safe. If athletes are informed, they are more likely to recognize the warning signs.
There is an annual compliance meeting that all coaches and athletes attend at Oswego and there are different programs based on the athletes academic year.
“In the compliance meetings…they get quick updates on our policy, how to report something what happens when there is a report, and all the ways they can get involved with prevention so that happens every year with every athlete,” Evaneski said.
Athletes in their sophomore year are required to attend a bystander training program.
“In their sophomore year all athletes are required to go through bystander training,” Viscomi said. “That’s coordinated through Shelly Sloans office so that’s kind of phase two, so we do the escalation training as freshman and then the bystander training as sophomores.”
Step UP! Is the name of the bystander training program used at Oswego. The goals of the program are to raise awareness of helping behaviors, increase motivation to help, and developing skills or confidence when responding to problems or concerns.
“I really like it because it focuses on having the participants be empowered bystanders in their communities,” Sloan said. “No matter the situation, someone stepping up can change the outcome of a potentially harmful/hurtful/dangerous situation or even save a life.”
When the athletes are upperclassmen, they are asked to be involved in the Yards for Yeardley walk but all teams and coaches are encouraged to participate.
“The Yards for Yeardley event was actually born from the One Love foundation but that started because of an incident with a women’s lacrosse player at the University of Virginia where her boyfriend murdered her, so that family then started the Yards for Yeardley because her name is Yeardley Love,” Viscomi said.
Oswego was the first SUNY school to be involved in the Yards for Yeardley walk and last year it became a SUNY wide event. Oswego placed first last year and placed first again this year 6,272,000 yards.
“That’s over half a million more than last year and this year we did it in two hours less,” Evaneski said.
The student athletic advisory committee (SAAC) also works with Evaneski to plan the event and keep the athletic department involved.
“I think it’s a pretty balanced approach that we take,” Viscomi said. “I'm very happy with where we are at this point in time.”
Not only is SUNY Oswego educating their athletes, but they are doing their part to be accountable for the guidelines the NCAA has set regarding sexual assault education.
The only rules the NCAA has in place is that the school president or chancellor, athletics director, and Title IX coordinator says that the education has been conducted.
The problem with what the NCAA has enacted is that universities can lie about the education they are providing or provide minimal education, but the athletes at SUNY Oswego are continuously educated every year.
According to the annual security and fire safety report from SUNY Oswego, nine rapes were reported in 2015 and 13 were reported in 2016 that were on campus. These are only reported cases and many cases never end up being reported.
Evaneski encourages students to reach out to her if they need any help.
“We generally encourage everyone to reach out to me directly because what we try and do is prevent students from having to go to multiple offices for different services” Evaneski said.
Evaneski can help students talk to the police, arrange counseling, and help them get medical care.
The signs of sexual abuse and assault can be hard to spot, but the continued education at SUNY Oswego is aiding in keeping the community safe.
The video that Woite watched helped her realize how subtle the signs can be.
“Some of the signs we talked about were very subtle and it can be easy to be blind to some of those things just because you’re not aware,” Woite said.
