Va. Colleges Reach Out to Silent Victims of Sexual Assault

About 100 people come into Connie Kirkland's office at George Mason University each year to talk about being raped, stalked or abused.

For Kirkland, the college's director of Sexual Assault Services, that number is both too high and too low. Each case is a wrenching trauma, but many other victims are keeping quiet.

The number of people who come to her office is "minimal compared to how many are actually assaulted or stalked," Kirkland said. She cited a 2000 Justice Department study that found that, over a seven-month period, about 3 percent of 4,446 college women surveyed had been victims of rape or attempted rape, and 13 percent had been stalked.

Kirkland and her colleagues at George Mason and other Virginia universities have taken on dual roles as counselors and campaigners, updating and offering strategies to help students reduce the risk of being assaulted or threatened, and helping those who have been victimized.

This month, the University of Virginia launched the Survivor Support Network, which trains faculty, staff members and graduate students to be more aware of potential signs of rape or abuse, such as a seeing a confession in a student's creative writing assignment. These newly trained supporters place teal-and-purple stickers outside their office doors as a welcome sign.

"It's to make support more, what's the word -- infiltrated," said Julianne Koch, a fourth-year women and gender studies major who came up with the idea.

Students, some of whom have faced such traumas themselves, have been a key conduit.

"It's shifted the focus, my focus at least, actually being able to help other survivors. That's just been huge in my experience," said Michaela M. Acker, a senior history major at George Mason, who, as part of her outreach, openly discusses being sexually assaulted.

"We're their age. We look like them," Acker said. "We're not dressed in suits and stuff. We're a little more approachable. "

She and other volunteers sit behind tables in high-traffic areas throughout campus, offering information and sometimes bringing students who stop by to a counselor. The volunteers organize an annual clothesline project, in which hundreds of T-shirts with educational or inspirational messages are stretched across campus, including one that a mother made with her young son's handprint. ("I'm two years old and I know what 'no' means," it read.) The volunteers pass out fliers with popular and relevant lyrics, such as these from a Christina Aguilera song:

Bruises fade . . .