Northern Illinois University is moving forward on a sweeping plan to deal with sexual assault on campus.
NIU’s Presidential Task Force on the Violence Against Women Act has been working on the issue for the past half year. It’s made up of campus and community members, reflecting all different aspects of the student experience. Lesley Rigg is a vice president at NIU and co-chaired the task force. She says it was good to learn the university already has a lot of good programs in place to prevent and deal with sexual assault…now they’ve identified areas to strengthen.
“We want to make sure each student has several opportunities throughout their time here at NIU to learn about safety, to learn about what their rights are, to make sure we shift the culture and not just put a band-aid on it,” says Rigg.
Rigg says that goes for faculty and staff, too. New students and employees get training in prevention, intervention, and overall awareness. Everyone else will have access to the training, too.
