Siena Heights University received a $300,000 federal Campus Program Grant from the Justice Department’s Office on Violence Against Women. The grant’s purpose is to help students who are victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. The university was the only one in the state of Michigan to receive the grant.

Director of Residence Life Rachel Rickinger was the co-author of the grant, among other staff members including Michael Orlando, Cynthia Birdwell, and Lee Johnson. When asked about the process of writing the grant, she said the Justice Department’s Office “gave us a one-page sheet with questions to start answering. Then, we got examples of previous grant submissions that have won. We did research in best practices and different ideas for how to use the money.”

According to her, the process was long and required attention from a grant writing professional and consultants outside of campus.

Part of the $300,000 grant has already been stipulated by the Justice Department’s Office to be spent on specific purposes, said Rickinger. She said “there has to be a grant administrator, so we know that part of the budget has to go towards that person’s salary. There is mandatory training that happens every three years. There is training for the grant administrator, the dean of students, the conduct officer, the title IX coordinator, and two other people from the university.”

On the other hand, the university had to explain how they want to spend part of the grant as well. Rickinger said it’s on their plans “to put (emergency) call boxes in the parking lots, which is also a visual deterrent for crime. We are also spending the budget on survival kits. Those will be intended for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking or sexual assault.”

The grant is directly focused on Siena Heights students, but also part of the grant is to create coalitions in town to better serve the students.

“There is going to be training opportunities that we can connect with Adrian Police, Bixby (Medical Center), Catherine Cobb (domestic violence shelter), and Community Mental Health,” said Rickinger.