The University Police department is taking action to bring awareness to sexual assault within the community, and is training students to be prepared in those difficult situations.

CSUSM’s police department has  adopted a course titled Rape Aggression Defense (RAD). According to Officer Matthew Curran, this course aims to “build confidence in one’s self and make people more aware of the dangers out there today, as well as give basic skills to defend one’s self in such a situation, if they are not physically safe.”

The RAD course has become widely popular across campus among both students and faculty, and is proving to be a successful program with positive feedback through course evaluations. Although this program is currently only open to women on campus, students are hopeful that there will be a men’s course integrated soon.

“It was amazing. The officers who teach the course are very informed and kind. [They] taught me so much about safety that I had never considered before,” said Nicole Holman, Community News Editor at The Cougar Chronicle and a senior who took the class when it was offered in the spring semester last year.

The course meets for three evenings, a total of 12 hours, and is usually held once a semester. However, with the large number of students interested in the course at a previous session in early Sept., students will have another opportunity to take part in the course in Oct. Dates are yet to be announced.

For more information, please visit the University Police website at csusm.edu/police/RAD.