2024-2025 Annual Report

The McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention was launched in September 2020. The center engages in research and education on sexual violence among college students, particularly as it affects students from historically minoritized backgrounds, including students of color, queer and trans students, and students with disabilities. The center seeks to bridge the gap between research and education by bringing together researchers, prevention educators, and students to focus on scholarship and best practices for understanding people who cause harm, intervening in, and preventing sexual violence before it happens. In carrying out this mission, the center's work benefits students of all backgrounds and demographics.

On October 22, 2018, Lauren McCluskey was tragically murdered on campus by a man she had briefly dated. It was my first fall as a faculty member at the University of Utah, though I was no stranger to intimate partner violence. I will always remember waking up to the safety alert in the middle of the night. I knew immediately that it was not a random murder–that more than likely some sort of dating relationship was involved. As the details unfolded, I learned I was, unfortunately, correct. In the aftermath of this tragedy, campus community members came together to begin to explore how to move forward, heal, and prevent this violence from happening again. President Watkins invited me to join a task force focused on healthy relationships that included a number of people from across campus who were already working tirelessly to address and prevent interpersonal violence. Disturbingly, two more women affiliated with the University of Utah were also murdered in that same academic year by people with whom they were in current or previous romantic relationships. Dr. Sarah Hawley was a medical resident at the U of U Health Sciences campus and was murdered in January 2019 by her partner in their home. Undergraduate student McKenzie Lueck was murdered by someone she met on a dating site in the summer of 2019. In February 2022, Zhifan Dong, another undergraduate student, was murdered by a man that she dated.

At some point in the scramble to figure out what to do to address this violence, I approached President Watkins and said, “We need a Center for Violence Prevention.” It had been a dream of mine for some time to start a Center focused explicitly on dating and sexual violence among college students that combined research and education to stop violence from happening in the first place. As someone who had worked in higher education for almost 20 years, I had seen a lot. Despite our collective best efforts at responding to violence effectively and attempting to educate potential victims about the warning signs of a violent relationship, rates of violence had not changed among college students in over 60 years. It was time to do something different.

Thankfully, President Watkins said, “Yes, please!” and she immediately supported our work by fundraising to support the Center. I started by organizing a group of faculty and staff on campus to serve as the advisory board, and we devised a mission statement and strategic plan. Our mission included focusing on primary prevention by interrupting harm, rather than only reducing risk. Frustrated with the on-going violence and continuous unnecessary loss of life, many members of the campus community were on board with adding to the incredible work already being done by so many. The campus experienced a significant shift in campus safety resources and protocols, developing an entire division focused on campus safety, including hiring a Chief Safety Officer for the U.

The Center for Violence Prevention was re-named the McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention in October 2020 as a result of the University’s settlement with the McCluskey family and our work continued on. In the first few years of the Center’s existence, we largely focused on engaging campus community members in the work of violence prevention. In addition to the advisory board, we also created working groups that focused on specific areas of violence prevention: working with those who cause harm, community and identity-based approaches to violence prevention, and general education and awareness. These working groups changed and evolved over time, eventually disbanding in 2023 after engagement waned. In Spring of 2020, we also hired student staff to assist in the development of the Center. My hope was that students would be aware of the needs of their communities, providing insight that faculty and staff might not have.

We engaged in a number of initiatives those first few years – most of which were not considered “best practices” in the field of violence prevention. We sought to turn the narrative of risk reduction on its head–rather than asking what someone should do to avoid being harmed, we asked what students needed to understand to avoid causing harm. We hosted speakers during working group meetings and book clubs for students, faculty, and staff. We applied for and received a university grant for interdisciplinary research. We conducted a large number of workshops for community members interested in better understanding the dynamics of relationship and sexual violence among college students. We created a “You might be causing harm if…” campaign focused on interrupting harm from the perspective of the person who might be causing it.

Fast forward to today, and I am happy to share the evolution of all of these things. We initiated four national research teams focused on better understanding dating and sexual violence among college students. We developed a scaffolded curriculum for student-athletes who are required to engage in annual sexual violence education. We created an active Instagram education series focused on understanding and interrupting harm. We launched a podcast. We engaged committed student staff who continue to influence their peers in formal and informal ways. We stay connected with a robust network of alumni–former student staff who continue to use the work to influence change in their communities and jobs.

As I wrap up my final year leading the Center and reflect back on the last five years, I am proud of the experiments that we tried (and failed!) and all we have done together:

It hasn’t always been perfect – I have caused harm and made mistakes along the way. I have also leaned into my abolitionist values of repair and rebuilding. I also know that my privilege as a cisgender, white, neurotypical, tenured faculty member allowed me to take risks some others might not be allowed to take. Through it all, I still believe in transformation. I believe that abolition is our destination. We must engage in generations upon generations of healing, but we will get there. A world without violence is possible. A world where everyone’s needs are met and where people do not need to engage in violence as a coping strategy for their own experiences with harm and trauma is possible.

Our job is to create a world where that can exist–where people can heal from the harm they experienced so they don’t go on to cause more harm. Where we can rely on people to make good choices, rather than policy, to guide our actions—both as individuals and as faculty and staff guiding institutions of higher education.

I will always be grateful to the people of this community who trusted me, believed in me, and pushed and supported me to lead this Center, even when it was hard. I will always be grateful for those who followed, took ownership and led, and believe in a world where violence no longer exists.

To Niah and Nadeeka, thank you for believing in me and making me a better thinker, writer, and human. Thank you for practicing abolition with me–now and always.

To Stephen, who listened to, processed, and supported me in the dreaming.

To Ruth and Laura for seeing (or at least believing in) my vision and saying yes.

To President Randall for keeping the vision alive and continuing to support this endeavor that so many other presidents would have shut down for not relying on “best practices.”

And to everyone else who has been a part of this journey somewhere along the way, especially the current and former staff of the MCVP who will always have a special place in my heart and my dreams. We did this.

And we will keep doing it.

What is your answer to adrienne maree brown’s question, “How do we build the future on a deep yes, a deep longing for what we want?”

I’ll see you in that future, friends. Onward!

 

 

The education team at the MCVP works to create and implement educational workshops focused on the primary prevention of relationship and sexual violence across campus. We frame this through the lens of stopping harm before it happens by intervening with people who have the potential to cause harm, which all of us do in some capacity. This means teaching participants what normalized harmful behaviors may look like, how to avoid causing harm, how to respond if someone tells them that they have caused harm, how to read and respect others’ boundaries, how to accept rejection in healthy ways, and how to focus on accountability both personally and within their communities.

An important focus of our education team has been ongoing education and engagement beyond a one-time training. We achieve this through our continued partnerships, as well as our two- and three-part educational series. Several groups that requested workshops through the MCVP asked the education team to come and facilitate multiple times. We facilitated two workshop sessions with both the first-year athletics seminar and the first-year chemistry seminar in order to allow participants to engage deeply with the content through discussion and activities. We find that being able to attend a class or address a community more than once helps to engage participants more effectively.

Every workshop that we facilitate is different depending on the community’s needs and unique experiences. This is why we primarily function through a request format rather than campus-wide workshops. We have found that we get more engagement this way and have the opportunity to be specific and relatable with our discussion and activities. At the end of each workshop, we ask participants to leave us anonymous feedback so we can continue to improve our content.

Workshop Feedback

"This was my first time doing an in person workshop like this and I found it very informative and beneficial. Real good stuff there."

"I love all the activities obviously, I find them very fun and easy to discuss. One thing the activities did that I really liked was bring up real life situations that you would never consider, letting us really think and maybe even reassess things in our lives. But I also like you guys bringing up history and also breaking the ice about harder topics to discuss allowing us to feel more comfortable talking about them after. Also I think it’s so impressive, the positivity and you guys thanking us for participating and sharing our thoughts makes it a very inclusive discussion that I would like to learn from".

"It was very helpful and I actually got some tips for a situation I am in."

"This was definitely the most informative and easiest presentation to listen to out of all the ones we have had. I learned the most."

"That was by far the most informative and engaging presentation on harm I’ve ever been a part of! Great job!"

Instagram Education Series

In September, our education team created a weekly series on our Instagram (@uofucvp) to educate college students and our broader campus community about relationship and sexual violence prevention in an engaging and accessible way. New posts are shared every Thursday.

This ongoing project was inspired by a student staff project, created by Josie Videla and Tillie Powell, that was implemented in Fall ‘24 which aimed to share research about Harm on Dating Apps through multiple Instagram posts. This series inspired our education team to continue to establish this format of education through the Instagram Education Series. The education team and student staff work to break down research about topics that stick out to them surrounding relationship and sexual violence, so that it is accessible to a wider audience.

33 Instagram Education Posts: Topics from our education series included harm on dating apps, survivor-perpetrator spectrum, why people cause harm, history of sexual violence, sexual scripts, abolition, primary prevention, an overview of our work at the MCVP, and more!

Recently, student staff worked collectively to create a post on sexual geographies in dorm rooms. This was a topic that they explored while completing their onboarding curriculum through reading Sexual Citizens. We even got a comment from a student tagging University of Utah housing because they resonated with the post so much!

Improved Numbers: Both our average reach per post and total accounts reached improved dramatically from 2023-2024 to our 2024-2025 academic year.

The Conversation Blog

The Conversation Blog lives on our website as a place for people to deeply explore topics that the staff at the MCVP are passionate about. Topics are chosen based on current events or the specific interests of the MCVP staff.

End of an era: The New Consent Narrative

Jilly McBane started her career as an MCVP student staff member in her second semester of her Freshman year, and continued up until her graduation this May. Throughout the three and a half years she spent with us, she completed several projects and facilitated multiple educational workshops. Her passion project, though, was her educational podcast that explored complex and nuanced topics of relationship and sexual violence in a casual and conversational format.

The New Consent Narrative posted five new episodes this year. In the latest one, Jilly sits down alone to explore her learning, growth, and development that she experienced as a student staff member of the MCVP. We are so proud of Jilly and her accomplishments and although we will miss her dearly, we can’t wait to see where she goes next!

Works in Progress

In Spring ‘25, we hired 4 new student staff members who will be returning in the Fall to continue their action projects to end relationship and sexual violence on the University of Utah campus. Look out for these exciting upcoming projects that are in the works!

Consent Campaign: Our student staff member, Deevya Barrel, has started the process of creating a campus-wide campaign about the nuances of consent. More specifically, the campaign will focus on building awareness around the ways that coercion, silence, and miscommunication do not equal consent.

Movie Night: Harm in Media: Our student staff member, Savannah Holzer, is exploring how harm is normalized in media like movies and reality TV shows. Look out for campus-wide “movie nights” where participants will interact directly with instances of harm that play out on the big screen.

FSL and Business Programming: Our student staff member, Kaley Kavanaugh, has a unique experience as a Business student and a member of fraternity and sorority life. She is working to focus on these specific populations to create educational workshops that will be relatable for her community of peers.

Harm in the Oudoor Community: Student staff member, Becca Clarke, is using her connections with the outdoor community to explore how harm may show up differently and ways to prevent it in this space.

Catalyst Summit

Education Coordinator, Allie Moore, began facilitating the creation of a collection that includes all of the work of the MCVP staff throughout the last five years of the Center’s existence. Collectively, the staff at the MCVP has begun writing a five-chapter “workbook” that focuses on the frameworks and philosophies that inform the center, consent & nuance, people who cause harm, engaging students, accountability, and turning research into practice.

This collection will inform the first annual Catalyst Summit [BROKEN] that will bring together practitioners and activists from across the country to engage with one another and explore strategies to end relationship and sexual violence on college campuses.

Book Club

Dr. Chris Linder and Dr. Nadeeka Karunaratne are currently facilitating four multidisciplinary research teams of staff, faculty, and graduate students from across the country focused on understanding how to interrupt sexual violence among college students. The research projects aim to provide practical and theoretical implications for administrators, educators, and student leaders about preventing harm on campuses.

Exploring College Students' Learning about Dating and Sexual Relationships

Team members: Anne Dufault, Chris Toutain, Clara Wellons, Jackie Mesenbrink, Swati Sah, Whitney Hills

In this study, we explored where, what, and how college students learn about dating and sexual relationships by engaging with 27 first-year students through interviews, journals, and focus groups during their first semester of college. In March 2025, we held a data engagement retreat at the U, where team members came together to analyze and make meaning of data generated with student participants in Fall 2024.

View an infographic highlighting key findings from the study.

Understanding the Experiences of Respondent Services Professionals

Team members: April Pavelka, Julia Broussard, Libna Noor, Megan Karbley

Because institutions of higher education have only recently begun to establish respondent services programs, where staff provide support and guidance for respondents in institutional sexual misconduct adjudication processes, little guidance exists for practitioners engaging in this work. This study aimed to understand how higher education professionals who work with respondents in sexual misconduct cases conceptualize their work with the goal of providing recommendations for the field of respondent services. We interviewed 24 respondent services professionals from across the country in the summer of 2024 and engaged with the transcripts in Fall 2024.

We presented the findings from this study at three conferences in Spring 2025:

• Association of Student Conduct Administrators (ASCA) Conference (Portland, OR)
• MASOC: Massachusetts Society for a World Free of Sexual Harm Campus Sexual Misconduct
  Conference (online)
• NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Strategies Conference (Boston, MA)

To view an overview of the key takeaways from this study, you can view a webinar recorded by team members.

Survivor Perceptions of Justice, Accountability, and Healing

Team members: Grace Poon Ghaffari, Karla Aguilar Marquez, Marigold Hudock, Robert Babcock, Robin Berman

The purpose of this study is to understand how college student survivors of color envision justice, healing, and accountability in the context of sexual violence. This year, we finished data generation by interviewing 20 students of color from seven different institutions about their experiences and perceptions of justice, healing, and accountability. We also facilitated five dreaming circles with 12 of the student participants; these sessions were similar to focus groups and were focused on dreaming and imagining new responses to addressing sexual violence in higher education.

We presented our research team process at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Conference in November 2024 in Minneapolis, MN.

The Impact of Federal Policy on Sexual Misconduct Work in Higher Education

Team members: Ann Schafer, Elaine Newton, Jordan Jameson, Karen Miksch, Paul Rubin, Sapna Naik, Sarah Hurtado

We launched the center’s newest project this year, which focuses on understanding the impact of federal policy, specifically Title IX, The Clery Act, and the Campus Sexual Violence Elimination Act (Campus SaVE), on campus responses to sexual misconduct. Specifically, we seek to explore how staff and administrators engaging in sexual misconduct response and prevention efforts conceptualize their work and how federal policy impacts their work. We began conducting interviews in summer 2025 with administrators across the country, including student conduct administrators, Title IX staff, prevention educators, Clery compliance officers, and victim-survivor advocates.

Check back on the MCVP’s Research page for continual updates on our research projects!

Two Books

Thinking Like an Abolitionist to End Sexual Violence in Higher Education

• Authors: Chris Linder, Nadeeka Karunaratne, and Niah S. Grimes

Sexual Violence on Campus: Power-Conscious Approaches to Awareness, Prevention, and Response, 2nd Edition

• Author: Chris Linder

Seven Journal Articles

College Students’ Perceptions of a Clery Timely Warning about Sexual Assault

• Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice
• Authors: Kevin Coe, Heather Melton, Chris Linder, Jessie Richards, Whitney Hills, and Allie Moore

Exploring the Impact of Clery Sexual Assault Warnings on a Campus Community

• Journal of Higher Education
• Authors: Chris Linder, Heather Melton, Whitney Hills, Kevin Coe, Jessie Richards, and Allie Moore

Using Epistemic Injustice to Examine the Scholarship about Sexual Violence among Minoritized Students

• Violence Against Women
• Authors: Chris Linder, Cydney Caradonna, Quentin Hodges, and Allie Moore

Dear Kathleen: An Immersed Reflexive Inquiry of Sex Work, Sexual Violence, and College Students

• New Directions for Higher Education
• Authors: TJ Stewart, Olivia Snow, and Chris Linder

The Role of Spirituality in Healing from Sexual and Relationship Violence in Higher Education

• Journal of Trauma Studies in Education
• Authors: Nadeeka Karunaratne, and Karla Aguilar Marquez

Review of the book, Voices of Campus Sexual Violence Activists: #MeToo and Beyond

• Review of Higher Education
• Author: Nadeeka Karunaratne

An analysis of the dating violence disclosure experiences of women and femme college students of color using representational and political intersectionality

• Journal of Higher Education
• Author: Nadeeka Karunaratne

Op-ed: Title IX regs treat students as political pawns
Inside Higher Ed. Author: Chris Linder

Cortez, M. (2024, September 19).
Rape reports at the University of Utah spiked in 2023, largely due to 150 reports from one victim-survivor.
Deseret News.

Hinds, J. (2024, September 19).
University of Utah releases 2023 crime report.
Utah Daily Chronicle.

Tanner, C. (2024, September 19).
University of Utah points to ‘complexity of unhealthy relationships’ in explaining campus crime increases.
The Salt Lake Tribune.

On October 24, 2024, Chris, Nadeeka, and their co-author Niah Grimes, spoke on a panel at the launch of their book, Thinking Like an Abolitionist to End Sexual Violence in Higher Education, published by Routledge in 2024. They also facilitated a dreaming session for attendees from different campus departments. The authors facilitated sessions at student affairs conferences hosted by the professional associations of NASPA and ACPA, were featured in a blog post, and led a talk at Morgan State University about engaging with abolitionist frameworks to address sexual violence in higher education. The authors and book were also featured on several podcasts this year, including Student Affairs Voices from the Field, Student Affairs NOW, and The New Consent Narrative.

Presentations

In addition to the presentations for the research teams and the Thinking Like an Abolitionist to End Sexual Violence in Higher Education book mentioned above, Chris and Nadeeka facilitated workshops at conferences and various institutions this year.

• Chris gave the keynote address at the 3rd Annual Utah Campus Safety Summit.
• Chris facilitated a workshop for the Utah Clery Compliance Officers Symposium and Nadeeka facilitated one for the University of California Survivors + Allies Collective.
• Nadeeka facilitated a webinar for the NASPA Culture of Respect Collective.
• Chris and Nadeeka gave guest lectures in courses at Rice University, San Jose State University, University of Denver, University of Georgia, University of Massachusetts, Boston, and University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
• They presented at conferences, including the ACPA - College Student Educators International Annual Convention; Association for the Study of Higher Education Annual Conference; and the Asian Pacific Islander Gender Based Violence Summit.

To our amazing donors,

Thank you! You make our work possible, and we could not serve our community without your support. We deeply appreciate your commitment to ending sexual violence through research and education. Thank you for being in community with us and for investing in the future at the University of Utah.

We are dedicated to preventing sexual violence on our college campus and to building the best possible future for all of us. This year alone, your support has allowed us to build new relationships with research associates, expand campus educational programs, and grow positions within the MCVP staff.

Serving our community this year has been a true pleasure. Thank you for believing in our vision and for helping us accelerate change—not only for our campus, but for society at large.

Thank you for another fantastic year of dreaming, educating, researching, and collaborating with us here at the McCluskey Center for Violence Prevention. We appreciate your engagement with our mission of ending sexual violence through primary prevention. Please consider staying in touch with us and joining in as we begin another monumental year of firsts, learning curves, growth, and - as always - more dreaming.