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Women's self defense course helps ease safety fears on campus

By Andy Elder, Student Affairs Writer

Walking alone across any college campus at night can be a bit eerie for a lot of people. For women facing that same prospect, the walk can elicit feelings of unease or even fear.

That needn’t be the case.

Defending Ourselves: A Self-Defense Course for Women Students, a course offered by The Center for Women Students, in conjunction with the Penn State University Police and RAD Systems, can help allay those fears.

RAD, short for rape aggression defense, combines lecture and extensive hands-on training to enable students to develop confidence and proficiency in realistic and usable defense tactics. The course is designed to raise awareness, prevention, risk reduction and avoidance options.

“It’s just amazing,” said Susan DelPonte, a staff assistant in The Center for Women Students, who coordinates the program. “Just from the evaluations, where you read comments like ‘it’s the best thing ever’ and ‘I can’t thank you enough,’ it is 110 percent gratifying. You really see the transition these students made to more confident women.”

DelPonte said coordinating the program fit naturally into her everyday duties.
“ I do a lot of events management in our office. It’s a small office. We only have three full-time people and some part-time graduate students. So, it fit into that role. I love doing it; I meet a lot of neat students.”

The self-defense course was initially offered with instruction by an independent, off-campus self-defense instructor. But when that instructor’s work load prevented her from teaching the course, DelPonte and The Center for Women Students searched for a replacement.

They settled on RAD.

“We chose RAD because it is designed especially for women. It is very women centered,” she said.

“I took the course when it was offered by the independent self-defense person. Overall, there’s a feeling of more self confidence, empowerment, awareness. Women know what can happen on campus. They want to be ready, to be smart about it.”

DelPonte said The Center for Women Students offers the class at least once every semester. In Fall 2004 the program was offered in September and then again in October at the Weston Community Center located in Penn State’s West Campus White Course Apartments complex.

The course offers 12 hours of instruction broken down into two three-hour blocks per week over a two-week period.

DelPonte said she would like to be able to offer the class more often, but time and space demands on acceptable campus rooms limit it to, at most, twice a semester.

Still, whether it is once or twice a semester, the 25-student limit is always filled to capacity, she said.

“It’s been more of a consistent awareness. We’ve always met our cap. Women are concerned about their safety. We’ve seen a steady flow of students,” DelPonte said. “After times when there has been a high-profile rape or a sexual assault, we get requests to have someone come out and do a RAD class.”

And the unique part about completing the RAD course is its lifetime return policy.

“The instruction manual serves as a certificate. Students don’t get to keep it until they complete the course,” DelPonte said. “But that manual guarantees the student a free lifetime return and practice policy. It allows them to return to any RAD course in the United States or Canada to practice free of charge.”

And, if the responses on the post-program are any indication, those students appreciated the class so much they’ll probably take advantage of the return policy. Here’s just a sampling of some of those responses:

• “I really appreciate this program.”
• “I will definitely help spread the word about RAD”
• “It was excellent.”
• “Thank you for the confidence. I felt it really helped me.”
• “It was a tremendous commitment of time and energy.”
• “I love u guys!”
• “The instructors rock!!!”
• “I feel like I can walk home safer.”
• “I feel a lot more confident in defending myself.”

Reading comments like that makes all the time and effort in coordinating the program worthwhile, DelPonte said.

“ Looking through the evaluations was a real eye-opener,” she said. “We have an evaluation with a 1-5 rating. When I go through these, I see a lot of 4s and 5s, mostly 5s. I feel it is one of the more successful programs on campus.”

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