Listen to Molly Caradonna, Director of UHS Survivor Services, talk about current and future strategic initiatives to prevent sexual assault on campus.

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Hello. My name is Molly Caradonna, I use she/her pronouns, and I am the Director of UHS Survivor Services. In my role, I support the integrated care team of survivor advocates, mental health providers and medical professionals that provide the no cost, confidential services available at Survivor Services. Another aspect of my role is supporting the broader, cross-campus work happening to end sexual violence on our campus and improve the services available to our student survivors.  

I’m really energized about the commitment to sexual violence prevention and response as a key priority in the newly adopted Student Affairs strategic plan.  

Since fall 2022, I’ve been working with a core team of campus leaders across Student Affairs to strategically and proactively address the current state of sexual violence on our campus. We’ve set goals to create and support cross-campus systems for coordinated sexual assault response, with a focus on prevention, increasing access to care, and a trauma-informed campus. 

So, what concrete actions is the University taking as part of this strategic plan?  

First, we’ve collaborated with the primary researchers of the SHIFT study at Columbia University (Drs. Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan) who completed the most comprehensive study on campus sexual assault to date.  

The​ research for their 2020 book Sexual Citizens guided the creation of​ Sexual Assault Prevention and Community Equity, or SPACE, toolkit​ that​ guides campuses​ in developing their violence prevention strategies. In 2024, UW-Madison plans to use the SPACE toolkit to investigate the ways that the built university environment and the inherent power and equity dynamics underlying these spaces, contribute to or mitigate the risk of sexual violence on our campus.  ​ More specifically, this toolkit asks campus to consider power/equity across various types of space on-campus, including: residential spaces, social spaces, virtual spaces, programmatic spaces, and public spaces.  

Our SPACE Toolkit task force consists of nearly equal staff and student members with representation from Fraternity & Sorority Life, Campus Event Services, University Housing, Dean of Students Office, University Health Services, the Libraries, Cross-College Advising Services, Athletics, University Veterans Services, and Transportation. Together, over the next year, the SPACE Toolkit task force will audit the campus and make concrete recommendations for adaptations to our campus space and the policies/procedures governing those spaces, in order to reduce the risk of sexual violence.  

The second key goal of ​our strategic plan on​ sexual violence involves improving the cross-campus response to sexual violence. In early 2024, Dr. Lori Reesor​, UW-Madison’s Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs,​ endorsed the creation of two standing university committees.  First, a “Gender-Based Violence Prevention & Response Coordinating Committee” charged with building the internal capacity and infrastructure of coordinating offices to effectively address campus sexual violence through training, professional development, interdisciplinary collaboration, research-to-practice facilitation, and advising​.​ 

The second recommended group is a UW-Madison sexual assault response team (or SART) charged with coordination between offices that respond to sexual misconduct and ​work​ directly with impacted students, in order to enhance collaboration​ with organizations inside and outside the University​, ensure trauma-informed response, and improve accountability and/or transformative justice mechanisms.  ​​​​​​ 

While much work remains to be done, I continue to be personally moved and inspired to act, based on the stories and activism of our student survivors. I am hopeful about the concrete solutions and advancements that will come from the work of our Student Affairs core team. I also ask that each of you reflect upon your individual contributions to our campus climate, considering your role in contributing to our collective responsibility for creating a campus that is safe and equitable for all of our students.