Student organizations are sponsoring a nationally acclaimed program to inform students about date rape and offer assistance.
Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Order, Kappa Delta and Chi Omega are bringing Katie Koestner to campus to tell her personal experience with date rape.
Koestner is a peer educator and sexual assault counselor who went public with her story in 1990, while she was a student at the College of William and Mary in Virginia.
After a lack of response from her college, Koestner went to the media to get her story out.
She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo, NBC Nightly News, CNBC Talk Live, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, MTV and more than 35 other shows.
Koestner is an advocate for federal sexual assault legislation and lobbied Congress to pass the Campus Sexual Assault Victim’s Bill of Rights in 1992, which requires all colleges and universities participating in federal student aid programs to afford sexual assault victims certain basic rights. It also requires the school to notify victims of their option to report their assault to law enforcement authorities.
The “No-Yes” program will give an account of Koestner’s experience from victim to survivor, along with other survivor stories. There also will be a question-and-answer period after Koestner’s presentation.
Allison Fugetta, a member of Delta Gamma sorority, said it was Kappa Alpha Order’s idea to have this issue presented to help raise awareness among women.
Fugetta said there will be two or three counselors in the auditorium to help any students who would like to talk.