The Relationship and Sexual Violence Phone Line will be staffed by the Counseling Center beginning Jan. 1.
The RSVP hotline was originally staffed by the Women’s Center staff and trained volunteers.
The RSVP hotline is available for any NC State student who has been a victim of relationship violence or sexual assault, including stalking. The hotline runs for 24 hours every day of the year.
The move will have no major changes in the way students will receive help. The phone number for the hotline, 919-618-7273, and the operation hours will remain the same.
“There is no change in their experience,” said Director and licensed professional counselor at the Counseling Center Monica Osburn. “We will continue to have someone who is a trained campus advocate familiar with all the resources that is still listening to that survivor, so students will not notice any changes.”
The only difference students calling the hotline will experience is instead of having trained volunteers on the end of the phone, licensed mental health professionals at the Counseling Center will answer.
The Counseling Center currently has its own crisis hotline, which is frequently used by students, according to Osburn.
“Sometimes students will call that line instead of the sexual violence line,” Osburn said. “We started thinking that we have both of these resources if there was a way to achieve the same goal and partner and save some resources while we are doing this.”
The Women’s Center, the Office of Student Conduct, Student Legal Services and the Counseling Center will still continue to work closely to support student survivors of relationship and sexual violence, according to Osburn.
“This is an administrative change on the back end, which will not impact the student experience,” said the Director of the Women’s Center Ashley Simons-Rudolph. “In the spirit of collaboration, I think having two lines filter into one is a way to save money that doesn’t impact the student experience at all and, in fact, increases collaboration on our end.”
The Women’s Center itself will continue to play a crucial role for the RSVP hotline.
“The Women’s Center is still going to be the active response if a student needs someone to come out or go to the hospital with them related to an act of sexual violence,” Osburn said.
The current volunteers at the Women’s Center who answer the hotline calls have been notified of the change and will take on new projects starting Jan. 1.
“The volunteers will still work with us to create survivor support training, which will get even more involved in bystander intervention and other kinds of broad campus outreach,” Simons-Rudolph said. “They are very excited about doing other kinds of things on campus. They still have that training, and we still look to them to be advocates in their own communities.”
Lauren Frey, a junior in environmental sciences and student worker at the Women’s Center, is working on the Movement, a group of peer educators within the Women’s Center that leads workshops related to issues of gender equity and social justice.
“I love the staff and other volunteers,” Frey said.
Overall, both the Women’s Center and the Counseling Center hope make the hotline as helpful as possible.
“We need students to have immediate access when they need to reach out,” Osburn said. “Having the ability to pick up the phone at any time is the quickest way, and we don’t want any barrier for a student who needs help.”
Student survivors as well as anyone concerned about a student going through sexual assault can call the hotline any time for assistance.
“Part of our campus advocacy is if you see something, say something, so we just want students and their peers to know their resources if they suspect any sort of relationship abuse,” Simons-Rudolph said.
Simons-Rudolf said NC State cares about preventing interpersonal violence and providing resources for student survivors.
Students can access the helpline any time or day of the year by dialing 919-618-RAPE(7273).