WELCOME TO AAUW MINNESOTA!

We Have A New Web Site!

To go to our new website, just click here:

http://brainerdlakes-mn.aauw.net/

Brainerd Changing of the Guard

President: Deb Griffith debrange@brainerd.net 218-828-4841

Welcome to the Brainerd Branch! We are a group of creative, intelligent women who are fun to interact with. Our group provides opportunities to learn, meet new people, and sample some great food! This year, we are supporting AAUW’s mission by focusing on two policy areas: solutions to sex trafficking and STEAM – S(cience) T(echnology) E(ngineering) A(rts) M(ath). We will also hold our Annual Brain Buster Event to raise funds for local scholarships. If you’d like to try us out, contact me.

Sincerely, Deb Griffith, President

AAUW Brainerd Branch 2017-18 Calendar

New Brainerd Members Learn About AAUW

Brainerd Branch Collaborates on “We Are” Program

Newsletters

Brainerd Lakes Area Branch Program 2016 – 2017

September 26 – Women in Non-Traditional Jobs – Sarah Fogderud 5:30 pm

Monday, October 10 – Book Dinner – “A Man Called Ove” – 5:30 pm

AAUW member Diane hands a student member information on Central Lakes College’s Community Day on October 12.

Tuesday, October 25 – AAUW & CLC Get Out the Vote Event – 12 & 6 pm

IRON JAWED ANGELS
Tuesday, October 25
Two showings – 12 noon to 2 pm & 6 to 8 pm

FREE SCREENINGS
CENTRAL LAKES COLLEGE, CHALBERG THEATRE

A BRILLIANTLY ACTED DRAMA DIRECTED BY KATJA VON GARNIER, WHOSE
USE OF MODERN FILMING TECHNIQUES AND MUSIC CREATES A POWERFUL AND
POIGNAN FILM. INFORMATION AND TRAILERS AT http://iron-jawed-angels.com
ONCE YOU SEE IRON JAWED ANGELS,
YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN
TAKE THE RIGHT TO VOTE FOR GRANTED
Thanks to HBO for permission to hold these screenings.

Monday, November 14 – Book Dinner – “Lab Girl” – 5:30 pm

Saturday, December 3 – Holiday Social Gathering with high school
vocal group – 10:30 am

Saturday, January 21 – Brain Buster – 1 pm

brainbustertrivia.org

Saturday, February 1 – Book Dinner – “Boys in the Boat” – 5:30 pm

Wednesday, March 8 – International Women’s Day co-hosted by
AAUW Brainerd Branch and Central Lakes College, click here to view the full flyer.

Monday, April 3 – Book Dinner – “America’s Women, Four Hundred
Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines”–5:30 pm

Monday, April 24 – Annual Meeting and Elections – 5:30 pm
Friday & Saturday, April 28-29 – AAUW State Convention

Monday, May 15 – Book Dinner – Invention of Wings – 5:30 pm

Monday, June 12 – Meeting & Program TBD

Monday, July 10 -Book Dinner – “Dear Committee Members” 5:30 pm

: Sarah, co-owner of AW Research, speaks to AAUW members about life as a business woman in the science field and her day to day work.

: Central Lakes College Student Senate Representatives, Diana and Kristen, inform AAUW members about their recent work at the College.

Two Hundred Attend Sex and Drug Dialogue at Central Lakes College
Approximately two hundred students, faculty and community members, including AAUW members, engaged in dialogue about substance abuse, sexual communication and sexual assault on Tuesday, March 1st at Central Lakes College (CLC) in Brainerd, MN. With a grant from AAUW, the Brainerd Branch and Central Lakes College co-sponsored the event.

Brainerdbranch Two drinking and partying conversation skits prompted audience reaction and comment to what they were seeing and hearing. Discussion and dialogue was led by a moderator from the High Impact Training Company and the GTC Dramatic Dialogues based in St Cloud, MN.

Wrapping up the one hour program, the moderator stressed that sexual assault combined with substance abuse is primarily a men’s issue and that men can and should be responsible for themselves and each other in reducing negative drinking and drug behaviors and sexual assault.

The Sex and Drugs Show was presented as part of CLC’s campus-wide Sexual Violence Prevention Plan and was co-sponsored by the Brainerd Lakes Area AAUW Branch.

Statistics

Note: This list is by no means exhaustive. There are numerous studies on sexual violence on campus. Visit the NSVRC’s searchable online library to find additional articles and information.

National Sexual Violence Resource Center Campus Sexual Assault Fact Sheet (2015)

U.S. Department of Education. Campus Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool.

This analysis cutting tool was designed to provide rapid customized reports for public inquiries relating to campus crime data. The data are drawn from the Office of Postsecondary Education of the U. S. Department of Education Campus Security Statistics Website database to which crime statistics are submitted annually, via a Web-based data collection, by all postsecondary institutions that receive Title IV funding (i.e., those that participate in federal student aid programs) as required by the Clery Act.

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice. (2005). Sexual Assault on Campus: What Colleges and Universities Are Doing About It.

In 1999, Congress asked the National Institute of Justice to study school compliance with Federal laws requiring schools to disclose their security procedures, report crime data, and ensure victims’ rights. The resulting research report provides a comprehensive benchmark of sexual assault policy on the Nation’s campuses. This report presents key findings from the research.

Fisher, B.S., Cullen, F.T., & Turner, M.G. (2000). The Sexual Victimization of College Women. National Institute of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Findings from this report include:

It is estimated that the percentage of completed or attempted rape victimization among women in higher educational institutions may be between 20% and 25% over the course of a college career.
Among college women, 9 in 10 victims of rape and sexual assault knew their offender.
Almost 12.8% of completed rapes, 35% of attempted rapes, and 22.9% of threatened rapes happened during a date.
2.8% experienced either a completed rape (1.7%) or an attempted rape (1.1%) during the six-month period in which the study was conducted. Of victims, 22.8% were victims of multiple rapes. If this data is calculated for a calendar year period, nearly 5% of college women are victimized during any given calendar year.
It is estimated that for every 1,000 women attending a college or university, there are 35 incidents of rape each academic year.
Off-campus sexual victimization is much more common among college women than on-campus victimization. Of victims of completed rape 33.7% were victimized on campus and 66.3% off campus.
Less than 5% of completed or attempted rapes against college women were reported to law enforcement. However, in 2/3rds of the incidents the victim did tell another person, usually a friend, not family or school officials.

Krebs, C.P., Lindquist, C.H., Warner, T.D., Fisher, B.S., & Martin, S.L. (2007). The Campus Sexual Assault (CSA) Study. National Institute of Justice.

Findings from this report include:

Many women (88%) have never consumed a drink left unattended or consumed a drink given to them by a stranger (76%).
One-quarter of the sample (25%) reported consuming alcohol or drugs before sex at least once a month, and slightly fewer (23%) were drunk or high during sex at least once a month.
Eighteen percent experienced an attempted (13%) and/or completed (13%) sexual assault since entering college.
Among the total sample, 5% experienced a completed physically forced sexual assault, but a much higher percentage (11%) experienced a completed incapacitated sexual assault.
Sexual assaults were most likely to occur in September, October and November, on Friday or Saturday nights, and between the hours of midnight and 6:00 a.m.
Most victims of physically forced or incapacitated sexual assault were assaulted by someone they knew (79% and 88%).
Freshmen and sophomores are at greater risk for victimization than juniors and seniors.

Mohler-Kuo, M., Dowdall, G., Koss, M., & Wechsler, H. (2004). Correlates of Rape While Intoxicated in a National Sample of College Women. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 65, 37-45.

Findings from this report include:

In one study, one in 20 (4.7%) women reported being raped in college since the beginning of the year – a period of approximately 7 months – and nearly three quarters of those rapes (72%) happened with the victims were so intoxicated they were unable to consent or refuse.
One study found that students living in sorority houses (3 times at risk) and on-campus dormitories (1.4 times at risk) were more likely to be raped than students living off-campus.
Women from colleges with medium and high binge-drinking rates had more than a 1.5-fold increased chance of being raped while intoxicated than those from schools with low binge-drinking rates.
Women who had practiced binge-drinking in high school had an increased likelihood of rape while intoxicated.

AAUW Members Encourage Use of Title IX Guides in Area Schools

Brainerd Lakes Area AAUW Branch members Sandy Backowski, Little Falls, and Jean Schaeffer, Brainerd, gave 14 local school districts a call recently, asking for the name of the District’s Title IX Coordinator and if they were aware of the new Title IX Coordinator’s Guide.

Title IX is about ending sex discrimination in schools. Among other things, it includes athletics, monitoring the gender ratio in STEM courses (Science Technology Engineering & Math), supporting pregnant and parenting students and working to end sexual harassment and violence. The U.S. Department of Education released a Title IX Guide, in April, 2015, to help Title IX Coordinators in schools understand the full scope of their jobs.

Backowski and Schaeffer spoke with Superintendents and others in the schools and found that all Superintendents were aware of the law and who in their district was assigned to enforcing it, however, only Upsala and Pine River personnel had knowledge and a copy of the new Title IX Guide. The remaining districts were open to having the document e-mailed to them, which Ms Backowski and Schaeffer did.

Title IX Coordinators in the Districts are as follows:

Aitkin – Callers received no response
Brainerd – Athletic Director
Crosby-Ironton – Superintendent
Cross Lake Community Charter School – School Director
Discovery Woods Montessori School – School Director
Little Falls – Superintendent
In Onamia the Athletic Director is assigned Title IX duties.
Pequot Lakes – Superintendent
Pierz – the Superintendent and the Athletic Director share the responsibilities.
Pine River-Backus – Superintendent
Pillager – the Superintendent and the Athletic Director share the responsibilities.
Royalton – a HS Counselor has responsibility for Title IX.
Swanville – the Superintendent and the Athletic Director share the responsibilities.
Upsala – the Dean of Students (K-12) takes care of all Title IX responsibilities.
If you have questions about Title IX in your school, contact one of the above.

For more information on any of the programs call Colleen at 218-828-6233. AAUW’s Brainerd Lakes Area (American Association of University Women) membership ranges from Longville in the north, to Little Falls in the south. The group is open to all people interested in promoting equity for women through education, advocacy, philanthropy and research.

Contact: Colleen LeBlanc 218-828-6233

Central Lakes College Receives Campus Outreach Grant

Central Lakes College (CLC), Brainerd, MN is in the process of creating and implementing a campus-wide Sexual Violence Prevention Plan.

Mary Sam, CLC’s Director of Diversity, Equity and Tribal Relations, and a Brainerd Branch AAUW member submitted a Campus Outreach Program Funding Request to AAUW (national) to assist CLC in their start-up of the plan.

The request for $750 has been approved!

The grant will be used to help pay for “GTC Dramatic Dialogues”, a program, consisting of a skit, “The Sex + Drugs Show”, which is followed by discussion with students on types of drinking behavior, the effect of substance abuse on academic performance, what happens when alcohol and sexual communication collide, as well as the difficult subject of sexual assault.

AAUW members and the community, along with CLC faculty and students, are invited to attend the program which will be held sometime in February or the first week of March, 2016, prior to spring break.