Sexual Assault
If you have been sexually assaulted, or think you have been sexually assaulted, the first thing you may want to do is to call one of the three sources on campus for a confidential conversation. They are:
- Safe Space. Safe Space informs survivors of their options after an assault and offers them an opportunity to share their experiences in a confidential and supportive atmosphere. We offer extended support through the healing process. Safe Space 24-hour beeper: 518-860-7899.
- The Counseling Center. Silliman Hall. The Counseling Center offers confidential professional counseling services to Union College students. 518-388-6161
- Religious programs. Silliman Hall. Reverend Victoria Brooks-McDonald, the Campus Protestant Minister and Interfaith Chaplain can provide students confidential counseling regardless of religious background. 518-388-6618
Additionally, there are off-campus confidential resources
- Sexual Assault Support Services confidential hotline (518 346-2266)
- Rape Crisis Services (Planned Parenthood) of Schenectady County (518 374-5353)
(confidentiality does not apply in cases of incest or when suicidal or homicidal tendencies are expressed)
Rape is a form of sexual assault. If you have been raped or think you have been raped, click here.
If you have been sexually assaulted you may need medical care and supportive counseling. Even if you do not want to press charges, you are encouraged to seek medical attention.
What is sexual assault?
Rape is a form of sexual assault. Sexual assault also includes touching an unwilling person's intimate parts (defined as genitalia, groin, breast, or buttocks, or clothing covering them) or forcing an unwilling person to touch another's intimate parts. These acts must be committed without consent, by force, threat, intimidation, coercion, or through the use of the victim's mental or physical helplessness of which the accused was aware or should have been aware. This would include the inability to consent due to excessive alcohol or drug use. Sexual Assault can occur between members of the same sex or opposite sex, and either sex could be a victim or perpetrator.
Union College defines sexual assault (including but not limited to rape) as committing any of the following acts:
- Any sexual physical contact that involves the use or threat of force or violence or any other form of coercion or intimidation.
- Any sexual physical contact with a person who is unable to actively consent whether because asleep or under the influence of alcohol or other drugs to the point where the person is incapable of making or communicating
The term "active consent" includes the following conditions:
- Each person involved in sexual contact not only agrees to the sexual activity but agrees freely and knowingly.
- It is the responsibility of the initiator of sexual contact to obtain active consent from the other person and to determine that consent is freely and knowing given.
- Silence or passivity should not be presumed to confer consent.
- A verbal “no” or other verbal expression of dissent and/or physical resistance, no matter how indecisive or week or passive, always means NO.