Research Guides
Research Guides
This page may include sensitive content and language so please continue with care for yourself!
Sexual Assault has been and still is one of the most stigmatized areas of Mental Health.
A critical part of Drew's History of Mental Health Awareness is Sexual Health.
Sexual Health in this case encompasses how Drew has spoken about and raised awareness for Sexual Assault, Rape, and Sexual Trauma.
The following boxes are summaries of articles, from the Drew Acorn, that demonstrate progress Drew has made in terms of supporting Sexual Health, student handbook policies and resources at and outside of Drew, and outside programs of what Drew should implement.
Center for Counseling and Psychological Services: Counseling and Wellness | Drew University
-Offers Crisis Intervention, Group Therapy, Outreach and Multi-Session workshops, Consultations, Referrals, and Individual Therapy.
Sexual Health could be the focus topic at given times for outreach/workshops and group therapy but at any time for consultations referrals crisis intervention and individual therapy.
University Chaplain :Office of the Chaplain & Religious Life | Drew University
-The current University Chaplain is Tanya Linn Bennett, who works alongside Campus ministers and faculty advisors in the Religious Life Council.
They offer worship, liturgy, and spiritual discussions, and pastoral care.
They are a safe religious space to open up to in terms of healing from sexual assault and gain sexual health support from.
Health Services :Health Services for Students | Drew University
-Services available by appointment pertain to: Chronic Conditions, Minor Illness and Injury care, Gynecology and sexual Health, immunization and travel, Allergy and immunotherapy and Medication refills.
If you would like to have physical treatment related to sexual health, Health Services offers: Plan B/Emergency Contraception, Contraceptive counseling and prescriptions (birth control pills available on site), Gynecological examinations and pap smears, Pregnancy testing, sexually transmitted infection prevention, counseling, testing and treatment, HIV testing, Prescriptions for PrEP, HPV vaccine and Free condoms
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) : UNUM Employee Assistance Program.pdf - Google Drive, www.unum.com/lifebalance
-Program to access support care counseling and legal help pertaining to any issue including sexual assault.
Defiance against Violence-Group of Action Scholars who aim to raise awareness on gender-based violence, follow @defianceagainstviolence on Instagram
These are resources in Morris County that all pertain to filing reports and healing from sexual assault through counseling
Morris County:
-JBWS (Dating and Domestic Violence Support) Help for Survivors of Domestic Abuse | JBWS
-Madson Police Department Police Department | Madison Borough, NJ
-Deirde's House (Counseling Services) Deirdre's House
-Morris County Sexual Assault Center Morris County Sexual Trauma Center - Atlantic Health
-Morris County Prosecutor Morris County Prosecutor's Office – Morris County, NJ
-Morris Family Justice Center Coordinated services for victims of domestic violence | Morris Family Justice Center
These are New Jersey's statewide services for Sexual Assualt
State of NJ:
-Jersey Center for Non-ViolenceJersey Center for Non-Violence
-EDGE NJ (LGBTQ+ Services) EdgeNJ
-NJ Coalition against Sexual AssualtNJCASA | The New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault
These are National websites for Sexual Assualt Support, report filing, and case-managing
-RAINN RAINN | The nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization
-National Sexual Violence Resource Center Homepage | National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC)
-Volunteer Lawyers for Justice Volunteer Lawyers for Justice
-Stalking Prevention, Awareness and Resource Center (SPARC) Professionals | Stalking Awareness & Prevention | SPARC
These are hotlines available 24/7 for Sexual Health and Assault Crisis's
-Morris County Sexual Assault Sexual Trauma Center Morris County Sexual Trauma Center - Atlantic Health Hotline Number:973-829-0587
-RAINN RAINN | The nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization Hotline Number:800.656.HOPE
-Love is Respect Healthy relationships for young adults | love is respect Hotline Number:1-866-331-9474
-National Domestic Violence Hotline Domestic Violence Support | National Domestic Violence Hotline Hotline Number:1.800.799.SAFE (7233)
-Suicide Prevention Lifeline 988 Lifeline - If you need emotional support, reach out to the national mental health hotline: 988. Hotline Number: 988
The following articles are from the Drew Acorn Archive Website that pertained to Sexual Assault.
These articles will give a quick but not full timeline of what was being written about in terms of Sexual Health througout Drew's History of the Acorn, Drew University's Newsletter.
Some of these articles include sensitive language, so please continue with care for yourself!
In 1969, a short snippet of the article "the police issue" written by Peter Hoffman included a paragraph on his opinions on sexual assault.
Peter brought up the fact from what he has heard during his study abroad semester in London that the administration had been talking about a rape, but had never specified when it had happened, which Peter is skeptical about how hidden the details of this crime had been.
He also says that from what he has heard, this rape that the administration has been talking about was "this rape was no more than a Madison bawky* beating up his ex-girlfriend which I am told is part of the Madison dating ritual and nothing unique or worthy of excitement."
This quote is very problematic because it excuses a rape, it downplays the severity of the crime and infers that violence such as beatings are just a part of dating in Madison.
It was important to start with this article because up until the 70's or 80's time period, all the already scarce articles from the acorn i could find centered around Sexual Assault were writers giving their opinion on a rumored rape, and that opinion was always something along the lines of doubting it, downplaying it, or just not taking these issues seriously.
Peter was abroad in London when he wrote this article.
*bawky/bawkie- Peter Hoffman defines a bawky as a greaser which volume 1 of the historical dictionary of American slang as a " coarse unsavory and unkempt person" in the sense of how he uses it.
In 1979 an anonymous article called "Women, where were you?" was written pertaining to the lack of women at a "Sexuality Desicionmaking" program in Baldwin Lounge. The program was university wide and provided an open discussion for students in topics such as emotional commitment with sexual intercourse, definitions of "intimacy" and "relationship", and what the importance is of discussion the expectations of sexuality decision-making.
The writer urged women to attend the next session of that program that was scheduled the following week because having no input from what women thought made the discussion one- sided therefore made it lack the important dialogue about sexual relationships between men and women.
The writer stresses that the lessons and the open discussion are important for everyone regardless of their gender, and you reach a successful open discussion with all perspectives.
There was unfortunately no follow-up article as to a response from a woman or women that could've added valuable insight into why no women attended, or to see if the other session of the program was more balanced with men and women.
Lisa Heit in 1981 wrote an article called "Sexual Harassment Policy enters Student handbook"
The policy was called Violations of the University Human Rights Policy; the policy was added in response to the federal government mandating that every university needs a clause and policy on sexual harassment.
Sexual Harassment acted as an umbrella term for overt sexual gestures, uncomfortable sexual tones in atmosphere, sexual assault, etc.
The policy was written in very general terms in the article: "if the difficulty involves another student, the first step towards action is for the student to discuss the matter informally with the Dean of Students who will try to resolve the matter informally. If this proves to be ineffective, or the student wishes to take legal action, the student may file a written complaint regarding the matter. This type of action will be handled by the University’s Judicial Board.
If the difficulty involves a member of the staff or faculty, the student should first try to informally resolve the matter by speaking with the individual(s) involved. If this is inappropriate, the students should lay the charge before the Dean of Students, the Dean of Academics, or the Vice President of the University. If there are reasonable grounds to believe that harassment did occur, the Deans or Vice-President will arrange for a committee. hearing on the issue."
There are some problems within how this policy is written, the two most important are its lack of specificity with types of sexual harassment and secondly the sentence "if there are reasonable grounds to believe that harassment did occur" is not specific enough with what is reasonable grounds and allows for the issue to be susceptible to the victim not being taken seriously.
Although there are many faults within it, this was an important step in Anti-Sexual Harassment at Drew.
An article titled "Date Rape Awareness" by Bronwyn O'Neil in 1986 was the first instance in my findings of outreach specifically for Rape and Trauma Services from Drew's Counseling Center.
Drew's first seminar on Acquaintance Rape was mentioned in this article, which was hosted February 26th, 1986, in the Baldwin lounge. This seminar included a film called "Not only strangers" which brought light to the fact that perpetrators of sexual violence is not only a crime committed by strangers but also by friends, acquaintances, loved ones, and more. Followed by the film, Ms. Barbara Pressley who was a counselor in the Drew Counseling/ EOS center facilitated an informal discussion educating students on myths about sexual assault (an example is "when a woman says no, she actually means yes"), stereotypical forced roles in relationships of women and men, defining rape, responsivity, psychological trauma, and social alienation of victims.
The Article "Campus prepares for Rape Awareness week" by Ulcca Joshi in 1995.
The article discusses the informational and educational programs and sessions being ran by women's concerns, residence life, and the peer sexual health educators. The week of events hosted are as follows.
Monday- The Clothesline Project: Display of tee shirts along a clothesline. Each tee shirt represents a woman who was victim to a sexual crime, the color coordinating to the type of sexual violence inflicted on her.
Tuesday- Table in U.C filled with informational pamphlets on sexual assault and rape. Tee Shirt donated from New Jersey Coalition on Sexual Assault (Now called New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Assault as of 2025) all profits going back to NJCSA. Domestic violence specialist Sujata Warrier gave a speech in Brothers College.
Thursday- video and discussion of date rape as well as outreach to people who need support from a program specializing in date rape.
Friday- Jill Greenbaum who was a member of NJCSA spoke about raising awareness of rape and sexual assault on campus.
In 1995, there was a class being offered through Public Safety Officers called RAD (Rape Aggression Defense) for women that was a basic defense course that taught women physical contact training and tips as well as discussion/informational classes.
In my research, a self-defense program called ESD (Empowerment Self Defense) was tested for efficiency at Montclair University with a group of female students. The steps of the procedure were a prescreening assessing PTSD symptoms, group counseling a week before the program, 6 weekly 3-hour ESD training and each training followed by 1 hour group counseling, and a final group counseling session a week after the program ended. The data that the study collected about the efficiency of ESD fell into 4 categories:
1.Connection with their cohort: safe space for the participants who said they felt the ability to open up freely and have support, validation and with no judgement
2.Psychological Benefits: participants gained included confidence, self- connection, and self-assurance as well as a decrease in PTSD related nightmares and flashbacks.
3 Improvements to sense of safety: participants feeling safer both emotionally and physically, examples of it being safe to walk by themselves, to try dating again post-assault, safer in all of their relationships, setting up and defending their boundaries, and overall renewed confidence and freedom.
4.The suggested feedback to improve the programs: a need for more group processing time of the triggering nature of what was just learned or discussed, length of the program to be longer, more self-care tips, and the most important of all a push for this program to be on more campuses.
The largest criticism I have of both RAD and ESD and most self-defense/trauma classes in general is that they were women- only courses. Sexual Assault in general has this gap because is perceived as a women's only concern, which is not the case as anyone could be a victim, and anyone can benefit from physical self-defense training as well as the psychological healing the ESD program provided.
If we were to bring back classes like RAD since there are currently no classes like RAD or ESD, the ESD program would be open to any person of any gender identity. and we would take those participant's feedback.
We would make ESD program work for Drew by testing it with an initial class that had self-defense training and then group counseling, then expanding the 8-week program during a semester if the initial class goes well.
Questions? Need Help? Email reference@drew.edu
Drew University Library, https://drew.edu/academic/student-resources/library/