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RAD teaches women lifelong defense

By Janee Mitchell - Feature Writer

       The campus police have partnered with the Women’s Center to bring rape aggression defense courses to the UIS community. According to Lynn Otterson,

Mae Noll, resident director of LRH, demonstrates the defense skills acquired from the Rape Aggression Defense Classes sponsored by the UIS Police Department and Women's Center

director of the women’s center, RAD began at UIS approximately 8 years ago. Otterson said the program had been off and on until four years ago, it was then that the campus police decided to enlist the aid of the Women’s Center.
       

The RAD courses are offered by the campus police and advertised by the Women’s Center. The Center serves as the face of the program, however, the police initiated the program and are there to instruct. The RAD courses are taught by Sgt. Mike Stuart and Officer Amanda Parris of the UIS police department. According to Otterson, this program has experienced success with a starting class of 20 turning out 15 to 20 graduates.
       Sgt. Mike Stuart, RAD instructor, said the women graduating from the program always have good remarks about it. He also said that some women have been attacked after graduation from the program and were able to use the skills learned to defend against attackers.
       Stuart has been working with the RAD program at UIS for five years. Stuart’s wife and daughter are both graduates of the program. Stuart said the RAD program is there to give people what they need to develop safety on campus.
       RAD is a nationally recognized defense program designed to help women defend themselves and fight off attackers. According to the program’s web site, RAD is "a program of realistic self defense tactics and techniques for women." Otterson said that while UIS is considered to be one of the safest public universities in America, RAD increases the environment of safety given to the students.
       While RAD is designed to give women means to protect themselves against attackers, it does not guarantee safety. Otterson said that "for most women their previous socializations is such that they don’t believe they have the ability to defend themselves. RAD training gives them the skills and belief in themselves." Otterson also said the program shows women how to defend themselves but that does not guarantee an attack will not occur or that the attacker will be successfully resisted.
       RAD will be offered at UIS on Feb. 1, 8, 11 and 12 for a total of twelve hours. The course is currently being offered for women only. Otterson said "women need to be in a situation where there is not a physical disadvantage to build their self defense skills." If men were in the same training session women would be at a disadvantage. Otterson said that women would not want their attacker to know how they defend themselves.
Stuart said men are not invited to attend the sessions because they would need a different type of session. While the RAD program at UIS is only open to women, Stuart said there is a RAD program for men. The RAD program for men, according to Stuart, is better equipped for the men. However, UIS does not offer the men’s program.
While Stuart said there is no plan to implement a RAD program for men at UIS as of yet, Otterson said the doors of the women’s center is always open to both men and women. Otterson is pleased with the success of the RAD program, however, she said if she could change something about the program she would create more funding to offer RAD courses more often and reach more students.
       There are still open seats for this semester’s RAD program. Seats are limited, however, and only ten remain. The program is open to all women. Women interested in taking the RAD courses must contact Lynn Otterson at 6-7173 or womenscenter@uis.edu.

Board to consider proposed 2005-‘06 tuition rates today
$125 differential for new students would enhance academic quality

By Tom Cronin - Public Affairs Reporter

      If the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approves the fiscal year 2006 tuition proposal at today’s meeting, the cost of undergraduate tuition at UIS for the 2005-‘06 academic year would rise by $112 per semester, or 6 percent, for full-time students who arrived on campus before this academic year.
      Under the proposal, graduate tuition would rise by $120, or 7.1 percent, for full-time students enrolled in 12 credit hours of coursework. The proposed costs per semester amount to $1,975 for continuing full-time undergraduates and $1,800 for full-time graduate students. For tuition purposes, undergraduates taking 15 credit hours in a given semester are considered full-time.
      Tuition would remain steady for degree-seeking undergraduates currently in their first year at UIS because the Guaranteed Tuition Plan requires the university to offer these students the same rate for four years.
      The proposed guaranteed rate for new full-time undergraduates includes a base tuition increase of $160, or 8 percent. The overall rate also includes a differential of $125 per semester, which would be used to build academic quality and service programs. Altogether, the proposed 2005-‘06 guaranteed rate would be $2,286, which is $285 more per semester than this year’s rate.
      The differential would apply to both full-time and part-time students new to the university next academic year, including non-degree-seeking students, but it would be prorated for part-time students based on how many credit hours they take, UIS Student Trustee Andrew Hollingsead said.
      As part of the proposed differential program, per-semester guaranteed tuition rates for new undergraduates would increase by at least $125 more than the non-guaranteed rates each academic year until 2008-‘09. At the end of this four-year period, the full differential would be reflected in all tuition rates at UIS.
      Chester Gardner, UI vice president for academic affairs, said in November that the university began a surcharge program at UIUC and UIC in 2001 that increased tuition by $1,000 so new faculty could be hired. The surcharge program was never implemented at UIS.
      According to the resolution on tuition rates that the Board of Trustees is considering today, revenue from the differential will be used to enhance academic quality, support the recruitment and retention of high-quality faculty members, sustain educational technology leadership and increase library funding.
      At a tuition forum on Monday, Interim Provost Harry Berman said that the relatively low tuition rates at UIS in comparison to peer institutions and other state universities have prevented the institution from achieving its goals. The tuition rate at UIS is currently the ninth highest of the 12 public university campuses in Illinois.
      “The tuition differential is an effort to kind of move things along so that in a few years, we can really be … providing the kind of services and the kind of teaching that we all here have been wanting to do, dreaming about, and that kind of represents the fulfillment of what University of Illinois at Springfield will be,” Berman said.
      According to Berman, the revenue generated by the differential program would allow for the addition of new degree programs. Hollingsead said that most of the students who responded to a survey he circulated last week listed some academic programs – both graduate and undergraduate – that they would like to see added at UIS.
      Berman said it is unlikely that the university will be able to obtain funding from the state for the creation of new academic programs. By implementing the differential program, he said, the university would be turning to its future students for the funding to meet this goal.
      “The kinds of increases that we’ve had over the past several years are the ones that helped us just stay even or keep up with the increased costs,” Berman said. “… And, this differential is what’s going to make the difference in the overall quality of the enterprise here.”
      Jason Kennedy, SGA treasurer and a member of the board’s Tuition and Fees Executive Committee, said that revenue from the differential program could be described as “capital investment money” from a business perspective. For example, he said, with increased research funding, UIS would be able to attract more “high-quality research-oriented professors,” who would in turn increase the number of large research grants awarded to the campus.
      “I think it’s important to look at it not necessarily as anything transformative for the university so much as taking the next step, in that there have to be different sources of funding because it’s unlikely those sources will come from the state,” Kennedy said. “So as you explore different options, this is like the capital investment to go out and make those changes.”
      The proposed increase in student fees at UIS for the 2005-‘06 academic year is $53 per semester, or 15.1 percent, which would bring the total to $404 per semester. Included in the increase are a new Career Services fee of $6 per semester and an increase in the recreation center fee to $90 per semester.
      Increases in per-semester Housing rates for apartment and townhouse residents range from $490 to $524 in family units, and from $230 to $494 in single-student units. The Housing cost for Lincoln Residence Hall – just the “room” component of room and board – would increase by $144 per semester.
      John Ringle, director of Housing and residential life, said that the rates for the apartments and townhouses appear to be “skewed” because they include a cable charge of $18 per month and an electric charge ranging from $20 to $30 per month. These charges are not currently included in the Housing rates in the apartments or townhouses. According to Ringle, the general operational Housing cost increases range from 3 to 5 percent.

RAD teaches women lifelong defense

Board to consider proposed 2005-‘06 tuition rates today