In conjunction with Safety and Security, the College has decided to offer a course in rape assault defense this term as a physical education class.
Safety and Security Sergeants Rebel Roberts and Mark Lancaster are currently teaching four classes to female students and employees of Dartmouth.
The course is based on the Rape Aggression Defense system and teaches women to use their personal weapons, like their hands, feet and heads to defend themselves against attack, Roberts said.
"We looked at this program for what it was and looked at the need at Dartmouth, and thought it connected very well," she said.
RAD was developed in 1989 by Lawrence Nadeau to empower women through self defense; this empowerment is taught through education, dependency on self, making decisions and realization of one's own power. Since its inception, more than 30,000 women have been trained at many locations, including colleges and universities across Canada and the United States.
The classes will meet for a total of 13 hours over four sessions this term.
The course teaches that awareness and risk reduction are 90 percent of avoidance.
The empowerment that the program offers to women helps them to "turn fear into anger rather than into panic," Roberts said. "We hope everyone comes away feeling really great about themselves."
Roberts said she learned of the program through a seminar in Louisville, Ky. three years ago and presented the idea to teach it at Dartmouth to College Proctor Robert McEwen.
Last winter, Roberts and Lancaster attended a three-day training session to become instructors.
While the College is currently only offering four classes, three of them for physical education credit and one for employees of the College, Roberts and Lancaster said they anticipate an expansion of the program.
The Amos Tuck School of Business Administration wants two classes taught to their students before graduation, Roberts said. She also said several sororities had voiced interest in having individual courses offered to the women in their houses.
