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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
February 23, 2005 School Zone: By Cynthia Hodnett Mitch Bruckert, a junior biology major and campus climate director at
the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, is leading the effort to get a
congressional resolution passed to designate September as National Campus
Safety Awareness Month.
UWGB has various programs throughout the year that highlight public
safety issues, such as sexual assault awareness week. But rather than
focusing on various campus safety issues throughout the year, National
Campus Safety Awareness Month would allow for different topics to be addressed
during one month, Bruckert said.
"The reason why we chose September is because it's the start of the
school year and about one-fourth of the (student) population are freshmen,"
he said. "It's a proactive support in getting people to become responsible
about their own safety."
Last year, Bruckert and members of the Student Government Association
designated September as the month to educate college students at UWGB
and campuses nationwide about public safety including sexual assault,
alcohol and drug abuse and fires.
Bruckert later began working with Security On Campus Inc., a national
nonprofit group dedicated to making college campuses safer. Out of their
efforts came a resolution that was introduced in January by U.S. Reps.
Mark Green, R-Hobart, and John Duncan Jr., R-Tenn. The resolution should
be scheduled for a vote before September.
"Mitch has really took the lead. You'd walk into the office and he's
on the phone with (U.S. Sen. Russ) Feingold's office," said John Virant,
a history major and Student Government Association president. "One time,
he's on the phone with the White House. Without Mitch, I don't think this
would have gotten as far as it has."
Bruckert said he got the idea after learning about Wisconsin's Campus
Safety Awareness Week in October. His efforts also were spurred by two
attempted sexual assaults reported at UWGB in 2003 and other national
news accounts of alcohol- and drug-related deaths among college students.
National data show sexual assaults are a growing concern at college
campuses. According to a 1999 study by The Higher Education Center for
Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, U.S. Department of Education, one out
of six college women reported they were raped or had been the victim of
an attempted rape during that year.
"Those alleged assaults brought it home," Bruckert said. "I had the
mentality that college was a safe experience, which it primarily is.
"Then I came to realize that it's not just administration's responsibility
to keep me safe but it's my responsibility at the end to keep me safe."
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