Ball State’s Office of Victim Services found a new victim advocate after a three-month vacancy of the position.
Victim advocates provide survivors of assault-driven crimes with a variety of resources like emotional and legal counsel in the aftermath of an assault.
During the summer and the first month of the first semester, Ball State was without an advocate.
“Sometimes it’s just meeting with a student to talk about their needs, sometimes it’s explaining how the system works. Certainly in some cases, it can be helping [survivors of assault] navigate the system to get some kind of protective order. They can go with [survivors of assault] to the emergency room when they’re getting a physical examination and be a support there,” said Dr. William Betts, the director of Counseling and Health Services.
The position, formerly held by Allison Wynbissinger, became available after she moved to a different role in the staff as the assistant director of Student Rights and Community Standards last June.
Her replacement, Lanie Stutz, was hired on Oct. 2 in order to continue the services provided by a victim advocate.
Stutz was selected through a collaborative hiring process lead by the Office of Victim Services, with input from A Better Way and the University Police Department.
All cases that would require the assistance of a victim advocate were instead forwarded to A Better Way’s Muncie branch.
A Better Way, which opened in 1978, provides advocacy, counseling, support groups, housing and 24-hour crisis and suicide hotlines for victims of domestic and sexual assault.
“We go out there to provide in-person advocacy, making sure that the survivor knows all their options and that they’re not by themselves during that process,” said Katie Blankenship, one of A Better Way’s victim advocates. “Besides that in-person advocacy, we also offer free counseling and support groups, as well as transportation to and from those [resources].”
Blankenship said the organization handled three separate cases from Ball State students over the last three months.
In comparison, the Office of Victim Services saw 69 individual cases last school year, Betts said.
Similar to the victim advocate, A Better Way is more focused on providing options to survivors of assault than putting survivors through a process after an assault.
“If [survivors] were to talk with a victim advocate, what the victim advocate is going to do is provide them with choices and let them know what is available. Then, it is up to the survivor of the assault to decide what they would like to pursue, be that legal charges, or Title IX investigation or nothing,” said Betts.
During the time the victim advocate was absent, there have been three reported cases of sexual assault since the beginning of the semester.
Contact John Lynch with comments at jplynch@bsu.edu.
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