Since the beginning of the school year, one group has been gaining more and more attention throughout Longwood's campus. This group goes by the name of RAVE. The name stands for Respond to Acts of Violence Effectively. The group's mission, according to their website, is to "educate the campus community about various forms of violence and how they impact the campus."
First established by Associate Dean of Students/Executive Director of Residential and Commuter Life Larry Robertson, the program's development was inevitable. One of the problems that initially helped move the group into action was the increased amount of cyberbullying from social media. A particular site mentioned was College ACB. A movement spawned from this as the group posted on Facebook, "I've decided I'm only going to use social media in a positive way" in status boxes. From there, the status made its way on to several other students' walls. After that, RAVE slowly but steadily began gaining ground.
The program is divided into three smaller groups: website, outreach and major programming. Robertson spoke on each sub-group and how its mission is to reach the Longwood and Farmville community about the effects of bullying and how to address them effectively. The website sub-group is responsible for developing information for the Longwood community as well as other surrounding communities, which they hope to have up by next year.
The sub-group outreach is hoping to work with the media as well as students and faculty on campus. This will include television and radio stations as well as training tools for college faculty, as this will be one way they will know how to handle potential bullying situations. Finally, the major programming group is responsible for setting up events on campus as well as in the community to convey the effects of bullying and how each situation should be handled.
The forms of bullying each group will be addressing are bullying, cyberbullying, domestic violence, harassment, hazing, micro-aggression, sexual assault, and stalking. Robertson said the main goal of all of this is to help victims with the definition as to whether they are truly a victim and to help bystanders determine what to do.
The RAVE program consists of members from the Longwood community, staff, faculty, students, alumni, and members of the Farmville community.
Though the program's development was inevitable and the increased cyberbullying helped with this, other circumstances have contributed to its presence. According to Robertson, last year there were increasingly more reports of cyberbullying, as well as bullying. Also mentioned was the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) hazing incident that became public with many news channels last year. He also said hazing takes place in many different forms, which is something the program wants to address as well.
Jennifer Cox, co-convener for the program and co-chair for the third sub-group, major programming, has also helped a great deal to the program's evolution. On Monday, March 5, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., RAVE will host an event in Blackwell Hall to raise awareness on the different ways to respond to acts of bullying.
The event will cover the aforementioned forms of bullying as well as how to act when in the situation. Cox said that at the event, attendees are able to sign a pledge against bullying and in turn receive a card that contains "mini version" of the pledge as well as a bracelet with their slogan.
The program is a first of its kind, as many other schools do not offer such in-depth information on the subject of bullying. For more information, visit RAVE's web page by clicking on "RAVE" at www.longwood.edu/studentaffairs.
