Administrative oversight of MU's Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center will officially switch from the Missouri Students Association to Student Life next week.
The RSVP Center oversight switch will primarily mean a change of funding for the center. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs says the goal of moving the funding from MSA to Student Life is to provide stability that will help sustain the program.
"Students wanted it that way because the students today are saying this is an important program and service for our campus and they want it to continue and they don't want it to be subject to the vagaries of different administration in MSA next year, the year after, the year after that," Skroggs said.
Scroggs says the funding switch doesn't necessarily mean more money for the group right now, but it will help keep opportunities available for more funding down the road.
The group currently operates on a budget of about $80,000 dollars. Scroggs says this switch was also an indication that the RSVP Center is a priority of MU Student Life. She also says MU exceeds federal recommendations for sexual assault prevention.
"For the last five years, it has been providing prevention programming that's just been outstanding. The White House says we need to do green dot and bystander training- the University of Missouri has been doing green dot and bystander training for the last three, four, five years," Scroggs said.
Even with these programs already in place, coordinator Danica Wolf says the center wants to do more.
"We would love to expand our prevention programs and education programs and all of those things as well. And being in the department of student life I believe will potentially help make that more feasible in the future," Wolf said.
Both Scroggs and Wolf say they hope this change in oversight will allow the center to grow and improve in order to meet the needs of MU's students.