By Grace Tesoro
Contributing Writer
#ProtectTheNest not only embodies Susquehanna’s mascot but also represents one of Susquehanna’s newest safety initiatives that can be found on the university home page.
Various departments on the Susquehanna campus have come together to develop a new safety initiative to prevent on-campus violence as well as provide a place for students to access safety resources.
The new Student Safety web page is placed under the section titled “Campus Life: Division of Student Life” on the Susquehanna home page. The new website features information regarding sexual misconduct and genderbased violence, Title IX and campus safety in general.
Christiana Paradis, who was hired in January 2018 as the Program Coordinator for the Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women Grant, had a role in the creation of this website.
“One of the things I started to notice as I started to meet with students and talk with them, was that there really wasn’t one place where they could get a lot of information about genderbased violence,” Paradis said. “It started around that, as a portal to just share information around ‘what is gender-based violence?’ ‘what does it look like?’ and what kind of resources are available to students.”
From this idea, Paradis talked with the Department of Communications and proposed the site to become a larger portal where not only is there information and resources, but there is also as a hub for resources that students may need as well, not just related to gender-based violence.
Paradis was not alone in the creation of this website. She worked closely with the Department of Communications, specifically Dan MacArthur, the Director of Web Communications who Paradis identified as the person who actually built out the space.
Another partner she identified working with during the process was Vice President for Student Life Susan Lantz, who reviewed the content for the site.
“I also sent it out to the Coordinated Community Response Team which is made up of nineteen individuals both on campus and off campus,” Paradis said.
“They all have a hand in the services in genderbased violence, so I want- ed them to have a say in how their services were to be depicted on the site.”
Angelo Martin, Director of Public Safety is one of the nineteen individuals that are part of the Coordinated Community Response Team.
“One of the roles we had was making sure that our Title IX investigative policies matched up,” Martin said.
Martin also mentioned how the website features special trainings, which can be used as preventative tools against on or off campus violence.
“My hopes for the website is that everything is easy to access, and the policies are easy to understand for students,” Martin added.
Paradis also has hopes that students will be able to use this information and be able to find it quickly in case of an emergency.
“There is a preventative aspect of it as well,” Paradis said. “There is a prevention space on the website and my hope is that we can stop violence before it starts.”
According to Paradis, there are special workshops coming to campus, for students to get a better understanding of the by-stander effect, how to navigate relationships, and how to practice consent.
Paradis also noted, “Being on campus we all play a role in prevention. The general bystander campaign that we are using is #ProtectTheNest, as a central theme to protect one another and keeping each other safe.”