Help is just a phone call away for students seeking answers or assistance in cases of sexual assault.
The number for the hotline is 836-HELP and it is staffed by 24 student volunteers.
Center for Awareness of Sexual Assault victim service coordinator Erica Eul said she hopes to have the line manned by volunteers through the times when students are not as visible on campus, such as the summer or during Winterim.
| Center for Awareness of Sexual Assault drop-in support group Time: 5 to 6 p.m. Date: Thursdays Place: 55 Brewer Hall |
“There’s a fair amount of upperclassmen,” Eul said, who answers the hotline herself.
The hotline already has received one call since its Nov. 24 inception. A residence hall director called with procedural questions about a sexual assault.
Eul – who has been on the job for just three weeks – said though the hotline has received only one phone call, many cases go unreported or some victims simply don’t want to involve law enforcement.
“After going through a trauma like that, (some) people don’t want to press charges,” she said. “We certainly will present (all) the options to them.”
Volunteers at the hotline will educate sexual assault victims as they make the decision to call law enforcement, Susan Turell said in a university press release. Turell is the women’s studies program coordinator and an associate professor of psychology.
Eul added that victims’ actions after an assault largely depend on the individual.
A 1999 study reported one in six women have been sexually assaulted, she said.
University Police records since 1998 show eight reports of sexual assault. All of these cases were unfounded.
Eul, a 2001 UW-Eau Claire social work graduate, said friends and family should call the hotline for advice as well as the victims themselves.
The hotline focuses on outreach to students, but could potentially be for anyone in the Eau Claire area.
Other services provided by CASA include a drop-in support group, Eul said. Eul’s former job was at the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin working with HIV/AIDS prevention education and testing.
Usual attendees at the groups, she said, include victims of sexual assault, along with their family and friends.
