Ohio University offered sexual assault exams at Hudson Health Center starting in 1999, but the program was only at OU for six years. Now, some administrators would like to see the program return.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fifth in a weeklong series explaining how sexual assault cases are handled in Southeast Ohio and the resources available to assist survivors.
Ohio University’s Campus Care staff isn’t trained to perform sexual assault examinations.Dean of Students Jenny Hall-Jones is hoping to change that and bring the program, which was at OU in the early 2000s, back to campus.
A rape kit test collects forensic evidence after an assault. Only OhioHealth O’Bleness Memorial Hospital offers the service in Athens County.
Hall-Jones asked Campus Care officials to propose how much the training would cost. That proposal has yet to come across her desk.
“I think (the program) would be great,” Hall-Jones said. “To have that service there for our students, I think would be really, incredibly valuable.”
President Roderick McDavis said he hopes the Presidential Advisory Council on Sexual Misconduct will recommend whether there is a need for rape kits at Campus Care. The council is required to make recommendations by May.
“One area where we can probably improve is to provide rape kits through Campus Care,” McDavis said.
The university ended the program in 2005 after it had been offered for six years.
In 1999, the Hudson Health Center received a grant allowing four of its nurses to be trained as Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners, more commonly known as SAFE.
“We actually had a well-oiled machine when it came to this,” said Char Kopchick, who is currently the assistant dean of students for campus involvement, but was the director of health education when the program came to OU.
Kopchick co-wrote the grant with the then director of nursing, Patty DeBruin, to bring the SAFE program to campus. Both were also trained in the program. Kopchick, who is not a nurse, said she was trained so she could provide accurate information when explaining the examination.
The program ended for a variety of reasons, including financing and nurses who joined the Hudson staff who weren’t SAFE trained.
DeBruin, who was SAFE trained, left OU and was replaced by another nursing supervisor who was not SAFE trained.
The program was not as important to that new supervisor, Kopchick said.
OU didn’t include SAFE training in its job descriptions for new nurses — a “major oversight” within the program.
“It always pained my heart when the things that we had well established got lost in the mix,” she said.
The program offered a 24-hour crisis hotline which would contact the on-call nurse who would meet the student at Hudson to perform the exam.
Hudson nurses previously provided survivors with clothing to replace what had to be taken as evidence. The same was done for bed sheets, if the person had been assaulted at home or in his or her residence hall, Kopchick said.
“It’s hard when it’s not written into a job description for people to say ‘well why should I have to come in after hours?’”
O’Bleness is 1.2 miles from Campus Care or about a 25 minute walk for survivors, where they can have a rape kit test.
Campus Care staff can transport the student to O’Bleness for the procedure — but only during the center’s normal business hours, said John Kemerer, the medical director of Campus Care.
The facility is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
Campus Care does offer services a survivor might need, including tests for sexually transmitted infections and medication, said Amanda Swope, Campus Care nursing supervisor.
OU administrators and students have expressed their support to have its nurses SAFE trained, Swope said. But it would be an extensive and expensive training process.
“We’ve looked into it and then we’ve spoken to many different universities around Ohio, which most of them have the same policy and procedures that we do,” she said.
Kent State University, Miami University and Bowling Green State University don’t offer the rape kit test at their on-campus health care facility either. All three schools direct survivors to local hospitals.
“We definitely want to help and that’s why we’re working with all of the communities to help the students … We do have policies and workflows in place to help assist the patient,” Swope said.
Swope and Kemerer justified not having the exams available at Campus Care because the hospital is close and the on-campus facility can arrange transportation for survivors.
Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women’s Center who also oversees the Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Program, would like for testing to make a return to OU’s campus.
“I think it’s definitely worth having it here; the more places where people can access these kinds of services the better,” Dietzel said. “ People might still prefer to go to O’Bleness, but I think it would be important for us to, you know, provide that as a service to our students.”
@MariaDeVito13
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