OUSAP will reopen next Fall Semester as part of the Division of Student Affairs.
Ohio University's Survivor Advocacy Program will likely be opening again at the start of Fall Semester this year, according to an email from university officials sent to students Monday afternoon.
In a joint email to students, Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit and Jenny Hall-Jones, interim vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students, outlined the plan for the currently closed OUSAP program. The program will move to OU's Division of Student Affairs, according to the email.
"Staff in the Division of Student Affairs are crisis experts and advocates for our students," the email reads.
Other changes for the program are as follows:
- Hiring two full-time licensed individuals for the program, including a survivor advocate and a director
- Setting up an after-hours hotline with trained professionals
- Moving student advocates, who worked with the program's director before, to work with the Sexual Assault Prevention Educator
- Shortening the program's name from OUSAP to simply SAP
Job listings for the program's director and the survivor advocate will be posted during the Spring Semester, though the email did not specify when.
OUSAP was shut down in November after the program coordinator position remained unfilled. The program's former coordinator, Delaney Anderson, who was a non-mandated reporter for sexual assault survivors, left OU on Oct. 16.
OU previously posted a job listing for an interim survivor advocate in early November, but none of the applicants were qualified for the position, according to the previous Post report.
The Ohio University Advocacy Outreach program, which provides support to Athens County residents and residents of other counties, will operate outside of the Division of Student affairs, according to the email.
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When the program reopens, it will still be housed in Lindley Hall, where it moved in August last year, according to a previous Post report.
Counseling and Psychological Services and Campus Care will still be offering services to survivors, according to the email.
According to a previous Post report, counselors at Counseling and Psychological Services and anyone at Campus Care are the only non-mandated reporters currently on campus.
Laura Myers, Benoit's chief of staff, could not be reached for comment.
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