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.’

Some students may be unaware that such a course is even being offered, said Menjivar.

‘Most of us are usually busy with classes that we don’t really think about our safety even though we should,’ she said.

Sam Emanuel, a sophomore piano performance major, said he thinks the lack of student response to the program also may indicate women’s confidence in their pre-existing knowledge of defense skills.

‘This is a pretty open campus, and people are pretty vocal about these kinds of issues and feel like they don’t need to worry about them,’ he said. ‘Because students know the risks that are out there, they feel like they’re already well informed.’

The department has taken new measures this year to attract students to the program.

Last year, the course cost $25 per student and $35 per faculty member. This year’s course is free. It is also no longer limited to people affiliated with the university.

No one who has taken the course has contacted Lentz to say that she faced a situation where the learned defense moves were needed. Lentz said the course is an education tool, even if the women never have to put the skills they learned to use.

‘For the most part, I have had people tell me at the end of the class that they felt a lot more confident and empowered with themselves,’ Lentz said. ‘That makes me feel good as an instructor, and I know it was important for them to take the class.’

shlee10@syr.edu

Published on September 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm