On Sept. 21, the United States Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) denied Geneseo’s request for a $300,000 grant to fund the Prevention, Reduction and Education on Violence to Engage in Training (PREVENT) program. Despite this set-back, the PREVENT program plans to continue in its education and prevention projects.
In 2017, the college received a grant from the OVW to fund the PREVENT program for three years. When SUNY Geneseo reapplied for the grant earlier this year to fund the program for another three years, the application was denied.
Title IX Coordinator Marcus Foster expressed his disappointment that the college did not receive this grant, but stressed that his office will continue education and prevention programs without grant funding.
“The fact that we did not receive the grant does not stop us from doing this work; we are still actively working with members of our community to ensure that all members of our community are safe and knowledgeable about identifying these behaviors, but also able to speak up and intervene should they observe these behaviors,” Foster said. “So much of the work we can continue to do, much of the prevention education that we will be doing is not necessarily tied to the fact that we did not receive the grant.”
This semester, the Title IX office continued education and prevention programs for first-year students during Weeks of Welcome. The office also sent out the mandatory Sexual and Interpersonal Violence Prevention and Response Course to first-year students to teach students about sexual assault prevention.
“We work closely with students to be able to provide scenarios that were acted out for first-year students to help them identify problematic behavior, or behaviors, that involved sexual violence as well as intimate partner violence,” Foster said. “We also do have the SPARC, which is an online module that has been emailed to all first-year students.”
In a letter to the college, OVW Principal Deputy Director Laura Rogers said that Congress limited allocations to $20 million for the 2020 fiscal year in response to COVID-19, according to an article from the Livingston Country News. The OVW received 101 applications this year, amounting to over $33.7 million in grant requests.
“We received more applications than we were able to financially support and we regret to inform you that your project was not selected for 2020 funding,” Rogers told the college in a letter obtained by LCN.
The pandemic has also impacted Geneseo’s budget. In the 2020 Opening Convocation Address, President Denise Battles explained the effect of this financial hardship on the college.
“While our College has established reserves, simply put, our financial challenges now exceed what our reserves can handle,” Battles said. “The sizable budget gap requires our collective and urgent attention to and action on our financial difficulties, including aggressive cost reduction and revenue generation.”
Despite funding issues, Foster believes that the PREVENT program will continue to thrive because sexual assault prevention and education is a priority for the school.
“These are trying times for higher education. Geneseo is not immune to the financial difficulties that we're seeing across the nation,” Foster said. “The college has shown that prevention education and combating and reducing sexual harassment in its various forms is a priority.”
The letter from the OVW also stated that the college did not meet certain requirements to be considered eligible for the grant.
“It is clear that the Department of Justice does have a grading rubric when assessing whether the college receives a future grant,” Foster said. “The fact that we did not receive another three-year grant is not indicative of the work that we continue to do.”
Foster explained that the work the PREVENT program continues to do cannot be overlooked by the community despite not receiving the grant. The PREVENT program will continue its work with the community to educate and prevent sexual assault on campus.
“Our work does not stop,” Foster said. “Anything we can do to support members and being knowledgeable on identifying these behaviors, being comfortable reporting, but also supporting individuals who have experienced or been accused of committing these behaviors is a priority for the Title IX office.”