As if there weren’t enough groups dealing with sexual assault on college campuses, there’s now another one: FAR — Faculty Against Rape.

Colleen Flaherty at Inside Higher Ed has the story:

Group wants to help professors fight against sexual assault on campus

Most faculty members aren’t trained counselors, but they may find themselves on the front lines of the campus sexual assault problem anyway. Based on course content, a personal connection, or a feeling that they have nowhere else to turn, students sometimes disclose their experiences with assault or harassment to trusted professors who want to help but aren’t sure how. Other faculty members who don’t have students confiding in them may still want to do more to curb sexual violence on their campuses. And others have been outspoken about the issue and faced pushback from fellow faculty members or administrators.

A new national organization, Faculty Against Rape, or FAR, aims to help professors obtain resources on campus sexual assault and to build a sense of community and protection among like-minded peers (FAR’s website tagline is “Protect your academic freedom”).

Bill Flack, an associate professor of psychology at Bucknell University whose research centers on traumatology and campus sexual assault, is a FAR staff member. He said he wanted to get involved primarily because “students need our support.”

“In my experience, many faculty are not aware of the high prevalence rates of campus sexual assault, and even those who do know about it are sometimes unsure about how to support student survivors,” he said. “So helping faculty to support students who’ve been assaulted is a big part of what FAR is trying to do.”