Campus Announcements

The Oregon State Legislature recently passed legislation that has been signed into state law that requires Reed to make some changes to SHARE advocacy services. One of the most visible changes will be the transition of students serving as SHARE advocates from their current work to opportunities for leadership roles that focus on sexual and relationship violence prevention and resource navigation, providing education around bystander intervention, health promotion, and overall harm reduction on campus rather than confidential advocacy. Confidential support will still be available from SHARE program director L. Mattson and HCC counselors. Changes to the student role will help prevent conflicts of interest or uncomfortable power dynamics while allowing Reed to continue to provide trauma-informed and comprehensive support. While these services may look different, Reed will continue to provide strong support for students and survivors. More detailed information follows below.

According to House Bill 3456, described as an “Act relating to sexual misconduct at institutions of higher education; and declaring an emergency,” institutions of higher education in the State of Oregon must employ a certified advocate to conduct confidential advocacy services for students on campus. Several stipulations for who may not conduct confidential advocacy were outlined, including those who are “a student of the institution.” This includes anyone enrolled part-time, full-time, on leave, or as part of an extension program. A recent amendment to the legislation, House Bill 4164, clarified “student” to mean “undergraduate student”, reiterating that undergraduate students of the institution at which they are studying may not work as advocates for that institution.

This presents both a conflict for our current advocacy program structure and an opportunity to reimagine peer-support through SHARE at Reed College. As part of Reed’s full compliance to state regulations and interest in best practices, the peer advocacy program is shifting toward peer education and facilitation of support resources. In other words, to better support the community of students at Reed, we are no longer conducting advocacy services at the peer-to-peer level, with the on-campus confidential resources being SHARE program director L. Mattson and HCC counselors. However, we remain focused on providing peer support to survivors through peer support group facilitation and will focus our resources on supporting peer-led programs centered on sexual and relationship violence prevention, bystander intervention, and overall harm reduction on campus. Peers are still available for emotional support and reviewing options and resources for instances of sexual violence.

When we sought clarification from the Oregon Sexual Assault Task Force about what this change might mean for our program, we learned that this component of the bill exists to avoid any conflicts of interest, increased imbalances in power dynamics, and dual relationships between students. Working as a peer advocate—especially in a school with a small (less than 1,500) population—can create risks for breaches of confidentiality. For example, sharing classes with survivors one might be working with can be an uncomfortable experience for all parties, with conditions for blurred boundaries and unintentional forfeiture of privilege. This component of the bill also exists to prevent the exploitation of students, as advocacy is difficult and complex work, with comprehensive and ongoing training requirements meant to support advocates and survivors alike, and adequate compensation for this work is often not met.

Further, advocates may need to access secure, protected documentation systems and arrange to meet with folks (ex. the business office) to coordinate supportive measures with information beyond what a peer and fellow student have access to. Limiting this access to professional staff is intended to avoid potential security breaches and protect student information to the highest degree possible, as well as ensure that comprehensive services are provided with the least amount of disclosures necessary. The bill also requires that campus-based advocates provide services to all students; students working as advocates come up against a barrier for accessing these services when the available resources are their coworkers and direct work supervisor—dual roles that our code of ethics advises against and best practice prohibits.

In short, this component exists to better ensure that our advocacy program is able to meet survivors' needs while avoiding potential conflicts of interests, exploitative power dynamics, and to ensure that the opportunities for support that we are able provide are trauma-informed and comprehensive, for both survivors and students advocates—who may be survivors themselves.

Peer Support and Opportunity for Advocacy

Peer support carries benefits such as feelings of empowerment, increased outreach to marginalized groups on campus, and professional development for peer supporters. It is a central tenet of trauma-informed practice, and it is often peer support that we turn to first when experiencing harm. Peer support also comes with challenges. Individual, interpersonal, and social factors influence one’s decision to seek support following an experience of sexual and relationship violence. These factors include several barriers, including feelings of shame and stigmatization, fear of negative reactions following disclosure, fear of retaliation from those that harmed them, and cultural norms and stereotypes surrounding experiences of sexual violence.

Additional concerns for confidentiality have been raised. As peers in a small school network, the risk for breaches of confidentiality by constructive notice and involvement in similar social networks increase.

Finally, for those providing such peer support, several challenges emerge. On the structural level, there are challenges such as limited resources, staffing problems, and confusion related to process and role within the program. There is potential for inadequate supervision due to program capacity, increased emotional challenges from the nature of the work, impact on student supporter’s ability to complete schoolwork, and influence over social group dynamics. This is not to minimize the resilience and skill of peer supporters; rather, this is to highlight the need for comprehensive support environments for their work to be sustained.

Reallocating resources toward supporting programs within the newly defined scope of peer advocacy on campus will support not just SHARE students, but the college as a whole. For current SHARE advocates, previous training and experience positions them as valuable conduits of information, with the opportunity to lead prevention and education initiatives on campus. Training for effective facilitation of educational sessions is being developed for SHARE staff to support their peer education efforts. Finally, SHARE student staff will remain eligible to facilitate the peer survivor support group on campus after receiving relevant training and with support from campus staff. Our impact on campus may even be extended, as this shift is an opportunity to create culture change on campus beyond and alongside the impact of intervention services.

To provide opportunities for continued advocacy practice, volunteer opportunities with Call to Safety or the Gateway Center may be created through the SEEDS program. Through these relationships, students seeking to pursue advocacy can do so with the support of a local organization, increasing community engagement, receiving field experience, and maintaining high-quality supervision of their work. The intent is to provide a creative solution to the new regulations, opportunities for working within advocacy, and community engagement credit while dually providing opportunities for peer-led support, education, and prevention efforts around sexual and relationship violence. There is also potential to formalize opportunities like this through ongoing partnerships between Reed and local advocacy organizations. These partnerships are in development and largely dependent on program capacities.

If you are interested in learning more about opportunities under the SHARE umbrella and services available to survivors and allies alike, please contact L. Mattson at mattsonl@reed.edu or our peer advocates at advocates@reed.edu.

Articles cited:

• Barriers to Formal Help-seeking following Sexual Violence: Review from within an Ecological Systems Framework
• "Sometimes It Seems Easier to Push It Away": A Study Into the Barriers to Help-Seeking for Victims of Sexual Violence
• Structural Barriers to Accessing the Campus Assault Resources and Education (CARE) Offices at the University of California (UC) Campuses.
• Benefits and challenges of offering peer support to student survivors of campus sexual violence.