Campus Initiatives
The University of Notre Dame coordinates a number of education and training efforts. To learn more about Notre Dame's efforts, please see below. If you have ideas or suggestions, please contact us.
An Ongoing Commitment to Education and Prevention
Our faculty and staff have collaborated to create a comprehensive program to raise awareness and provide support to our students throughout their enrollment at the University.
Prior to arriving on campus, incoming undergraduate students participate in the first phase of Building Community the Notre Dame Way, an educational program featuring videos that introduce the values of the campus community, discuss respecting the dignity of persons and explore conversations of power. On Monday of Welcome Weekend, students debrief the online video content delivered over the summer, and staff and peer educators facilitate a discussion on the different types of sexual and gender violence, prevention and intervention strategies, and on resources for support.
Throughout the Moreau First Year Experience course, incoming students further their understanding of the sexual assault resources on campus, state laws, and campus community standards. Additionally, they learn about the skills needed to maintain healthy relationships, how to handle conflict and violence while dating, and bystander intervention, among other topics.
Graduate and professional students are an integral role in Notre Dame's community. During orientation, incoming graduate and professional students receive training on policies, procedures and resources related to sexual assault not only from the student viewpoint but also as a potential supervisor or instructor.
We continue to provide numerous educational and awareness-raising opportunities over a broad range of topics for students during and beyond their first year on campus as well as opportunities for involvement. You have the opportunity to get involved in these efforts:
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The Committee on Sexual Assault Prevention (CSAP)
CSAP is a cross-campus committee comprised of faculty, staff and students. The goals of CSAP are to offer advice and guidance to the Vice President for Student Affairs on how to assist and support victims of sexual assault, to spearhead assessment efforts to understand the needs of our students, to recommend a variety of prevention initiatives, and to facilitate collaboration among departments and student groups to address sexual violence.
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Gender Relations Center (GRC)
Led by administrators and students, the GRC offers student programs that foster dialogue on issues of sexuality, gender, inclusivity, respect, and healthy relationships on campus. The GRC offers many programs about violence prevention, particularly bystander intervention training, and trains student leaders to hold campus-wide programs and residence hall workshops. Contact a GRC staff member to get involved in educational efforts.
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GreeNDot
Green Dot is a violence prevention strategy predicated on the belief that individual safety is a community responsibility and not just that of the victim or perpetrator. The goal of Green Dot is to attract a force of engaged and proactive bystanders campus-wide to communicate that violence will not be tolerated in our community and that everyone has a responsibility to help. Visit the greeNDot resource page for more information about training and awareness events.
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Student-Led Efforts
The University administration is not alone in coordinating educational efforts. Notre Dame students are leading some of Notre Dame's most visible efforts to address sexual assault and interpersonal violence on campus.
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Student Government
Student Government recognizes its responsibility to foster a culture that promotes active bystander intervention, argues against language that trivializes sexual violence, and supports survivors in their process of healing. Recently, Student Government designed and implemented the “One is Too Many” student engagement and educational campaign to address sexual violence on campus with students. Student Government also recently launched “It’s On Us,” a campaign aimed at sexual assault culture change, adapted from the nationally-recognized campaign of the same name.
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Men Against Sexual Violence
The University’s Men Against Sexual Violence group was founded on the idea that men must be role models in society and hold other men accountable for their behavior. For too long, rape and sexual assault have been pigeonholed as “women’s issues” when in fact men commit the vast majority of these crimes. MASV believes that men just hear some things better from other men. MASV is group of men committed to spreading our message to average men, from average men.
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Creating a Campus-Wide Community of Caring
Notre Dame provides sexual and discrimination harassment training for faculty and staff, and individualized department training for stakeholders across campus, including coaches, sport administrators, deans, food service workers and other employees.
- All new staff are trained on Title IX, Title VII, Non-Retaliation and our reporting and investigative procedures during University Onboarding
- New faculty are trained in the Fall during New Faculty Orientation on Title IX, Mandatory Reporting and Key Faculty Contacts for Title IX
- In the fall of 2016, The Office of Institutional Equity will launch an online training module available to all faculty and staff which will cover university policy, harassment investigation procedures, how to help a student, how to report and key university contacts
- The Office of Institutional Equity and the Faculty Affairs Specialist offer targeted trainings to faculty departments. Contact the Office of Insitutional Equity at equity@nd.edu or 574-631-0444 to schedule a training.
Communicating Expectations and Addressing Issues
The University of Notre Dame has adopted a Policy on Sexual and Discriminatory Harassment that applies to all faculty, staff, and students. The policy includes definitions of sexual assault, non-consensual sexual contact, sexual misconduct, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, and conduct that creates a hostile environment. These definitions are also articulated in du Lac: A Guide to Student Life, Notre Dame's student handbook.
Response procedures are outlined as follows:
- Where the offender is a student, the procedures are outlined in du Lac: A Guide to Student Life.
- Where the offender is a faculty, staff member, or third party, the procedures are outlined in the following document: Reporting and Response Procedure for Violations of the University's Policy on Sexual and and Discriminatory Harassment by Faculty and Staff.
Ongoing Assessment and Evaluation of Campus Climate and Prevention Efforts
In order to understand the needs of our students and to assess the effectiveness of our efforts, students are asked to take a confidential survey. The first survey was administered during the academic year of 2012-2013. The next survey was administered in January of 2015, and the results are available here. The most recent survey was administered between October and November 2016. The results are available here.