LYNCHBURG, Va. – University of Lynchburg is one of 57 colleges across the country that have received a new grant to advocate for victims of sexual assault, and other violent crimes.
"They do a good job on keeping the numbers low, as we've seen in the past. But there's still instances, cases where they can have room for improvement," said Lilli Altenburg, a senior at University of Lynchburg.
University officials agree, too.
"The efforts that we are putting together currently are strong, but when we wrote the grant, we were able to identify a number of weaknesses that the grant can help to fulfill as well," said Aaron Smith, diversity and inclusion officer.
Currently, students can choose to report an incident anonymously or to school officials to have it investigated. A grant of nearly $300,000 grant will allow the school to partner with 12 departments on campus, Lynchburg police, the YWCA and the Commonwealth Attorney's Office as well as hire a victim advocate who will work with several organizations to help shift the campus culture.
"And that's stuff that we've already been doing as far as culture shift but to have somebody (who has that as) their sole job is phenomenal," Smith said.
The university just released their security report.
In the last year, numbers show, violent crimes have gone down. In 2016, there were eight reported sexual assaults/rapes; last year, there were six.
Domestic violence cases in 2016 and 2017 were low, seeing one report in those years. There were also nine dating violence incidents in 2016, that number dropped to two in 2017. There were 10 stalking cases in 2016 and four in 2017.
"I hope our students will be able to see a change as early as next semester," Smith said.
The University of Lynchburg won't receive the grant money until January. In the meantime, they are working to develop a description for the full-time victim advocate position. They hope to have it filled before the end of the year.