DSU receives $300K for Safe Space Project

Dover, Del. – Delaware State University aims to make the campus a safer space.

This comes on the heels of several school protests over sexual assaults that occurred on campus.

Many students have come out about their sexual assault encounters on campus. Now in direct response, the school has announced a new safety initiative. Some call it a step in the right direction and some say they need to see more. “The right opportunity at the right time,” says grant co-writer, Kim Graham.

A $300,000 grant was awarded to Delaware State University. All to support the school’s safe space project. A measure that Grant Writer Kim Graham calls timely following recent sexual assault incidents on campus. “The program really is a dedicated sexual assault initiative, it centers on intervention and prevention on campus,” she says.

In the program, the students will take the lead. “The students themselves will help to set the direction of what programming that we do, we’ve identified a number of best practices. Many that are innovative, are arts-based, or peer-led,” says Graham.

We spoke to one of the students who has recently been pushing for change at the school. She tells us she is skeptical that this announcement will help with their issues. “They haven’t had any support, anybody to reach out to them, a safe place for them to go, I know a lot of people are struggling academically,” says junior, Dynah Mosley.

To strengthen campus safety, Dynah Mosley says the school has to make training courses realistic. “We need actual courses, actual hands-on experiences, and courses that talk about real-life experiences, this isn’t the 1990’s this is 2023 the situations that would happen back then, they’re not going to happen now, we have social media, and stuff like that, we need to include that into our training courses,” she adds.

Graham remains confident in their approach saying this is just the beginning. “Our hope is that receiving this grant, and effort that went into it, demonstrates the commitment of the university to this process and that it demonstrates forward momentum, it is one step in a marathon,” says Graham.

Student Dynah Mosley says she’d like to see a safe space created for male victims as well because there aren’t many but still males that need this support. The grant co-writers say this funding is available immediately and once the program is in place, students will be able to use the resources.