Information for Graduate Students

The Office of Sexual Violence Prevention and Education (SVPE) is committed to empowering graduate and professional students to address gender-based violence by working in partnership with members of the Virginia Tech community. We seek to meet the varied needs of graduate and professional students on all Virginia Tech campuses. 

Our approach to prevention for graduate students

Our educational programming is grounded in a prevention-based framework that builds upon the prevention education that undergraduate students receive while reflecting the nuanced nature of gender-based violence (GBV) affecting graduate and professional students. We utilize a public health approach to prevention. Our approach focuses on:

• Teaching useful skills around developing healthy relationships, building and maintaining boundaries, and supporting people who have experienced harm.
• Creating safer academic, social, and professional environments.
• Strengthening relationships across the VT community.

How common is GBV among graduate populations?

Gender-based violence doesn’t just affect undergraduate students on college campuses. Though reported at lower rates, one report found 9.7% of female and 2.5% of male graduate and professional students experience rape or sexual assault involving physical force, violence, or incapacitation (Cantor et. al., 2019). Similarly, McMahon and colleagues (2021) found that 7.2% of female and 1.2% of male students experienced sexual violence at one university. Additionally, they found that 13.1% of graduate students had a peer disclose at least one incident of sexual violence to them. 

We know that these numbers do not reflect the true prevalence of gender-based violence as it generally goes underreported. Furthermore, research involving sexual violence victimization of college students generally focuses on undergraduate populations, often excluding graduate students from participation. Despite this, we recognize that there are risk factors that are unique to graduate students such as less knowledge of campus resources, problematic power dynamics with mentors, social isolation, the “small world” nature of academia, and participation in non-formal spaces (Bloom et al., 2021).

What can you do to help build a safer community?

SVPE recognizes that as a graduate student you may find yourself holding many different roles, including student, VT employee, researcher, friend, mentor and/or mentee, parent, and spouse. Within each of these roles you have the unique ability to help create a safer, more respectful Hokie community. Here are some ways that you can foster building a safer VT community:

• Attend a workshop hosted by SVPE.
• Invite us to host a workshop or program by filling out this form.
• Check out safe.vt.edu for more information on how to support victims and survivors.
• Email svpe@vt.edu for more information.