MSU releases strategic plan to address sexual assault prevention

<p>The <a href="https://msu.edu/ourcommitment/rvsm-plan/">Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct (RVSM) strategic plan</a> builds on the work of the RVSM Expert Advisory Workgroup, which has been a major driver of RVSM efforts on campus and was tasked with creating a values-driven operational plan with recommended initiatives, timelines and metrics. </p><p>The Workgroup — co-chaired by Dr. Rebecca Campbell, professor of psychology and Lt. Andrea Munford, coordinator of the Center for Trauma-Informed Investigative Excellence at the MSU Police Department — was formed in 2018 to make immediate recommendations to transform MSU’s institutional response to RVSM and oversee the implementation of those changes in the wake of the Larry Nassar crisis. Members of the workgroup were appointed by the president based on their expertise in RVSM services, prevention, policy and/or research.</p><p>“What we've learned through conversations through the Nassar case and through other cases and conversations with survivors and with other community stakeholders is that people didn't report what was going on because we as a university didn't give them a safe place to report,” says Munford. “There was a lot of judgment and inaction in reporting. And that became more known that there was a pattern there. And so people stopped reporting because they didn't feel like it was safe to do so.”</p><p>“I also heard people didn't know where to go,” adds Campbell. “They didn't know what services we had, and they didn't know how to access them. We've had longstanding victim service programs, both in sexual assault and in relationship violence and stalking for decades, actually very strong programs, good trauma-informed services, and people didn't know that they were there. We knew that we needed to be doing more to create clear, accessible pathways to the services that we have and to strengthen those services. There was still more we needed to do in those services. Both in terms of improving options for reporting and in terms of gettin