The Department of Outreach & Sexual Assault Services received a $300,000 three-year grant from the federal Office on Violence Against Women.
Beatrice Tatem, sexual assault services director, said the grant gives her department an opportunity to expand its services and strengthen the ones it has.
“We are looking to revitalize and restructure the service,” she said. “We are looking at where we are as a department and what we need to do.”
LeWanda Swan, coordinator of Outreach & Sexual Assault Services, said the grant will allow her department to educate the campus in a variety of ways including educating incoming students.
“The grant will promote a safer MSU,” she said. “We will flood the campus with prevention education.”
Tatem said she will be able to do more sexual assault awareness programs next year due to the grant.
“We want to create a culture of awareness,” she said.
 Swan said the grant will allow the department to develop new university policies on sexual assault such as domestic violence and stalking.
“(We want) people (to be) aware when they get here and until they graduate,” Swan said.
The grant will also allow more sexual assault focus groups, she said.
Swan said the grant allows her department to provide more educational training to university officials.
“We’re trying to have representation from different entities on campus,” she said. “It will have a domino effect on sexual assault prevention.”
Swan said the grant will allow her department to attend training sessions and events on sexual assault that will help them stay up-to-date on new laws, policies and developments on the topic.
“We’re basically trained on what’s going on with sexual assault prevention,” she said. “(It also) gives (us) an opportunity to see what other campuses are doing.”
Tatem said she is looking to target more organizations on campus to spread awareness on sexual assault. One group she plans to target is the women’s veteran group.
Swan said the grant will help her department be more creative in spreading awareness on sexual assault, such as utilizing the internet for online training.
The new grant will allow Tatem to bring in more guests speakers who will address sexual assault.
“We will be able to bring in a more diverse group of speakers to target the diverse needs of the campus about the topic of sexualized assault,” she said.
Swan said she plans to use the grant money to create a curriculum of sexual assault prevention on campus that will be self-sustaining after the grant.
Tatem said she has been able to expand her staff with the new grant by hiring a new project coordinator.
Tatem said one of her goals is to make MSU more proactive in the response of sexual assault.
Swan said the grant was highly competitive and her department received the money because of the services they offer.
“We received (the grant) because a lot of the things they were looking for from colleges we were already doing,” she said.