University Police and the Violence Prevention and Threat Management (VPTM) program are hosting events throughout the upcoming year to educate students on safety and security on campus. The purpose of these events is to engage students and faculty and teach them when to recognize and speak up about crime. 

The events include: free workshops dealing with workplace violence, suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention and domestic violence and stalking prevention. 

Students can sign up for these workshops at NC State’s Violence Prevention and Threat Management website. Times and dates are also available online, but if students are unable to attend any of the workshops, they can fill out a request form to schedule a workshop on another day.

All workshops will take place at the Environmental and Health Safety Center on campus.

Major David Kelly with University Police said, “The intent is to raise the awareness level through these workshops, so students have the information and education they need to act accordingly in whatever position they are presented in.”

Workplace Violence Prevention 

At the Workplace Violence Prevention workshop, attendees will be taught how to understand workplace and classroom violence, learn how to look out for warning signs and strategies for how to intervene, as well as how to provide support for victims. 

This workshop is mandatory for all supervisors and managers at NC State. All staff and faculty members are also encouraged to attend this training.

Suicide Prevention- Question, Persuade and Refer (QPR)

Question, Persuade and Refer is a community-based, nationally recognized suicide prevention program on campus. QPR consists of discussions on suicide myths versus facts, how to identify telling behaviors, verbal and situational warning signs and practice using new tools to help someone who may be in distress. 

More than 160 schools across the country offer QPR to their students and faculty.

Sexual Assault Prevention 

This interactive training teaches what sexual assault entails, defines consent, outlines bystander prevention strategies and provides resources for victims.

According to University Police, nearly one in four women will experience sexual assault while enrolled in school.

Carlie Bateman, a sophomore studying criminology, said she thinks these workshops will really help NC State because students need to develop these skills to notice warning signs. Bateman admitted she probably would not notice warning signs of sexual assault, so these workshops would be very beneficial.  

“I probably would encourage my friends to go one of these classes because you never know who may be affected by this kind of violence,” Bateman said.

Domestic Violence and Stalking 101 

Beginning with a video and interactive discussion, this workshop establishes what domestic violence, dating violence and stalking are, how to notice warning signs of these behaviors and overviews of the impact on victims and the community.

According to University Police, domestic and dating violence are the two most commonly reported cases to NC State’s Behavior Assessment Team.

A Day in the Life: The Workplace response to domestic violence

This is a more in-depth version of the Domestic Violence and Stalking 101 workshop. Attendees will learn how violence at school affects victims at home. Exhibits regarding how to support abused peers and motivate attendees and how to find solutions for the community will also be available.

Sara Forcella, rape prevention education coordinator for the Women’s Center, said she believes the best way to end sexual violence on college campuses is to change the culture on these campuses. The students and faculty have the power to change how sexual violence is handled.

“This starts with raising awareness about the issue, supporting survivors and educating students about these issues,” Forcella said. “I hope that the work we are all doing campus-wide, administration and students included, will help make survivors feel safer to come forward and make reports, make them feel empowered and ultimately end campus interpersonal partner violence.”

Kelly said the VPTM was developed in 2008 as a response to the Virginia Tech tragedy, so they are highly experienced and knowledgeable about detecting violence and threats on a college campus. The purpose of these events is to spread awareness and teach students not to be bystanders but instead be voices and help their fellow peers. 

“This is a university whose sole purpose is to educate the students that are here,” Kelly said. “We have also adopted that role in our crime prevention and awareness program and how we interact with the students and staff here. We want to educate the students on aspects of  personal safety, security and put students in a position to make better decisions based on the information we have provided.”

More information regarding the upcoming classes hosted by NC State’s University Police can be found on its website.