The small staff of the Ohio University health education and wellness department grew Monday when it filled a vacancy to help prevent and educate students about sexual assault.
On Monday, nine months after the hiring freeze took effect, Sue Ellen Hughes started at Hudson Health Center as the new assistant director in the health education and wellness office. The position has been vacant since Samantha Brauner left at the end of last year to join her husband, who is in medical school in Toledo.
When the university's hiring freeze went into effect in February, the job was not filled until the department could provide adequate reasons to rehire and show the necessity of the job.
Statistically, when there is one person whose job is to focus on sexual assault, more assaults are reported on campus because students think there is someone with whom to talk. According to a Post article, in the 2000-01 school year, when the position was vacant, only 15 cases were reported. When the job was filled in 1999-2000 and 2001-02 there were 21 cases. By April 2002-03, there were 40 cases reported - a fact that Brauner said proved students respond to the position.
The department was given permission to rehire the position in late summer. The five-person committee responsible for monitoring the hiring freeze cited the presentation of sexual assault statistics and the perceived need for the job from the students.
Since Monday, Hughes has been getting acquainted with her new job, but plans to jump right in, drawing on her experience from her previous job as the outreach coordinator at My Sister's Place, a women's shelter that focuses on domestic abuse.
I felt this job opportunity was a good combination of my experience at My Sister's Place and to use my master's degree from OU in higher education
she said.
She said one reason for leaving her previous job was the opportunity to teach a class on violence and society in Spring Quarter.
Hughes was selected from a pool of more than 30 applicants and was notified at the end of October, said Char Kopchick, director of health education and wellness.
Although because of the freeze we're a quarter behind we're a little bit ahead of the schedule because Sue Ellen was able to start right away she said. No one could be more delighted with her than our staff because we were really run ragged this quarter. We covered all those evening programs so students wouldn't feel the loss of the extra staff person.
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Katie Primm
