SAFER

Started by Columbia University students in 2000, SAFER is the only organization that fights sexual violence and rape culture by empowering student-led campaigns to reform college sexual assault policies. An all-volunteer collective, SAFER facilitates student organizing through a comprehensive training manual; in-person workshops and trainings; free follow-up mentoring; our Campus Sexual Assault Policies Database; and a growing online resource library and network for student organizers. SAFER firmly believes that sexual violence is both influenced by and contributes to multiple forms of oppression, including racism, sexism, and homo/transphobia, and view our anti-sexual violence work through a broader anti-oppression lens.

Strong college sexual assault policies are a key element in the prevention of sexual assault. Despite the well-known prevalence of sexual violence among college students, current college sexual assault policies commonly lack primary prevention efforts and due process procedures, exclude student input, traumatize survivors, and ignore disparate treatment of survivors and assailants based on gender, class, race, sexual orientation, and disability. By maintaining inadequate policies and resisting student demands for change, colleges create an atmosphere that condones violence, silences survivors, and reduces equal access to the benefits of a college education. Committed to social change through community mobilization, SAFER arms students with the tools needed to mobilize communities and make lasting change on campus.