R.A.P.E. Center’s name change, a non-issue
If the R.A.P.E. Center changed its name to an ambiguous title, the current controversy on campus would be warranted. However, by including ‘sexual assault’ in the new name, Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS), the center still clearly conveys its service.
The concern that an office without the word ‘rape’ devalues the severity of such a crime is ill-founded. Even though ‘sexual assault’ may not carry the same weight as ‘rape’ to some, it shouldn’t deter rape victims from going to SASS for help.
Including the word ‘rape’ in the center’s previous title could have prevented a number of victims from coming to the center for aid, since some victims probably don’t want to acknowledge they’ve been raped.
If the center continues to provide an effective, helpful service, its name is irrelevant. It does serve an important purpose on this campus, aiding victims who have undergone particularly damaging crimes, injuring them both physically and mentally. As long as students know about it, of course.
Though the new name itself doesn’t present any issues, the manner in which the Office of Prevention Services – which encompasses SASS – publicizes the new name is an area of concern. The Syracuse University community needs to be informed of the new name because if a serious crime were to take place, victims would know exactly where to go to seek help.
The office needs to issue enough materials so every student learns the center is now known as SASS. If it takes hundreds of posters plastered on the walls of every residence hall across campus, then so be it.
Although the office did e-mail every student to alert them of the center’s new title, further notification is in order, especially since the name change took place during winter break and not during the summer, before students came to campus.
With a number of incoming transfer students living on campus for the first time, as well as a number of other changes taking place at SU, the center should have waited at least until the summer to execute a name change.
Also, the combination of the Options Program – which provides assistance drug and alcohol-related abuse cases – and the R.A.P.E. center under SASS isn’t necessarily an issue either. The two simply need to continue to help students in a valuable, timely fashion.
If SASS maintains the same level of service and support it provided to victims when titled the R.A.P.E. Center, the new name doesn’t create any complications. The only issue is how the school will go about marketing the new name. If done correctly, future students won’t even be able to recall the center’s prior name.
