UCSC Dean of Students: Hire Two Additional Sexual Assault Crisis Counselors Immediately

Sexual assault is extremely prevalent on college campuses across the country, and UC Santa Cruz is no different. Even by the most conservative estimates, at a school of 16,000 students over 2,000 have experienced sexual assault.

Currently, our school employs only two certified sexual assault crisis counselors, both of whom have significant responsibilities outside of providing counseling and support to students impacted by sexual violence. As a result, victims/survivors of sexual assault are vastly underserved. This is unacceptable. We have to acknowledge the reality that sexual assault is a problem on college campuses, and take concrete steps to fix it. This is why we are asking our university to hire two more certified sexual assault counselors. We need counselors who understand our students and the issues they face.

**We are also running a letter writing campaign, and we want to hear from anyone who is interested in writing a letter to the Dean of Students explaining why we need two more counselors! You can have personal experience with this issue or not, we want letters from a range of different perspectives! Please email letters to ameltzer [at] ucsc.edu**

To:
UCSC Dean of Students
It should be the top priority of the UC administration to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its students, and to neglect the needs of those who have been affected by sexual violence is to fail in this duty. We demand that this problem be rectified immediately by hiring two certified sexual assault counselors to serve the needs of our large and diverse student body.
Sincerely,
[Your name]

Sign petition: https://www.change.org/petitions/ucsc-dean-of-students-hire-two-additional-sexual-assault-crisis-counselors-immediately