Efforts to Address Sexual Assaults Lauded

University of Montana President Royce Engstrom's reaction to the Jon Krakauer book about 'Rape and the Justice System in a College Town' primarily focused on the institution's efforts over the past three years to improve its efforts in dealing with the problem.

While Krakauer pointed out the flaws in the way several institutions, including the University of Montana either dealt with, or failed to deal with rape and sexual assault, Engstrom focused on the positive.

"The book serves a very important purpose in continuing to raise the visibility of this very serious issue of sexual assault on college campuses, and in our community," Engstrom said. "What I want to talk about really, is the next chapter, the chapter that wasn't written about in the book, and that is all the hard work that people have been doing to address the issue."

Engstrom praised the PETSA program  (Personal Empowerment Through Self Awareness) that was instituted three years ago.

"As of today, something like 24,000 students have successfully completed this tutorial on sexual assault," he said. "Again, emphasizing the fact that education lies at the core of everything we do in dealing with sexual assault."

All students are required to receive a score of 100% on the online PETSA exam before being allowed to register for classes.

Engstrom also praised the extra training that faculty, staff and the University Police have gone through, in cooperation with the agreement entered into with the Department of Education.

"That's the story I hope people will hear beyond the book itself," Engstrom said.