Molloy ready for school assault reforms

Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that the State University of New York colleges would implement system-wide standards for combating and reporting sexual assault. And he promised that, through legislation, the same changes would be coming to the state’s private schools.

Molloy College is ready for the reforms, since most of what is being changed are things that the school does already.

One of the main changes is reforming a definition of consent. Instead of “no means no,” which meant that all sexual activity would stop if either party said no, the new slogan is “yes means yes.” It means that, until consent is given, there should be no sexual conduct.

It’s an idea that Molloy has been using for years. “We try to educate people on how to be in healthy, mature relationships,” said Bob Houlihan, Molloy’s vice president of student affairs. “We run a program at orientation called ‘May I Kiss You?’ And the idea is asking permission before you do anything, from the simplest to the most complex.”

With more than 250 students now living on campus, safety is something that is at the forefront of the minds of the people in charge at Molloy. They take violence and sexual assault seriously.

“We run workshops during the year, and we have two groups on campus: One is called the partner Project,” Houlihan explained. “What the Partner Project does is talk about the way a man in a man/woman relationship should handle a situation, and that a real man should, in fact, not beat up someone they love. And [the other group is] Breaking the Silence. It’s the ability to give someone who may have been abused the opportunity to come forward in a safe environment where they know they’re not going to be judged and they’re going to be able to feel comfortable. So we cover a lot of different things.”

At orientation, all Molloy students are told who they can go to for help if they’ve been abused in any way. Many of the people that students are directed to are trained counselors.