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Group of Beta Theta Pi members from Wabash College upon completion of SUSOP’s 8 session programming. Pictured (left to right): Lucas Soliday, Burton Patterson (Rape Prevention Education Coordinator), Michael Krutz, Matthew Fajt, and Jeffrey Inman.
The Indiana Coalition to End Sexual Assault and Human Trafficking has several prevention initiatives it hopes will reach more male college students.
Those include Speak Up, Speak Out -- developed by Burton Patterson, who leads the effort. It was created to increase engagement and education of college men in sexual assault prevention efforts.
The program is aimed to break down sort of the ridged definition of masculinity and, in a group, discuss how it affects men’s ability to express themselves, says Burton.
With the COVID-19 crisis, those sessions have transitioned online. Burton says the overall response from participants is positive.
Because this program is voluntary, we get folks who want to be engaged, who want to be involved so usually the conversation and the message received is we want to be allies, we want to stand up, we want to change this culture, says Burton.
Burton works with several campuses in Indiana and those Beta Theta Pi fraternities -- including Butler, Purdue, Wabash, DePauw, Goshen and I-U.
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