Carnegie Mellon's University Police will offer a Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) Systems course to women in the campus community for the second time this semester on Wednesday. RAD Systems is meant to teach women how to defend themselves in the event of an assault.

"I felt that it'd be empowering," said Michelle Lockard, an administrative assistant in the police department. Lockard went through the RAD Systems program two years ago.

"I'm not any more aggressive now than before, but I think my mind frame of, 'Oh, I don't want to hurt anybody' is completely gone," said CIT sophomore Nicole Cheberenchick, who took the course last spring.

The RAD course takes 12 hours, which are split into one session of four hours and another of eight. The course includes three categories of training.  On the first day, participants are lectured on "common sense" behaviors of how to stay safe both in and out of the home.  On the second day, participants are taught various blocks and defense techniques in the morning, followed in the afternoon by simulated attacks during which participants and instructors dress in protective suits and test the skills that were taught earlier that day. Although this four-hour simulation section is technically optional, it is the culmination of the entire training process.

Lockard believes that the RAD courses have reconditioned her to respond appropriately in case of an emergency sitaution.

"It's really using your gut instinct and what you've learned," she said, citing the simulations as the most useful part of the training process.

"I have a lot more situational awareness now," said Elizabeth Schweinsberg, an Information Networking Institute graduate student, about what she learned from the RAD course she took in September. Schweinsberg said she's more cautious about walking alone at night, and also offers rides to her friends so that they won't put themselves in an unsafe position.

Currently, RAD Systems is not available for male members of the campus community, though a RAD Systems course designed for men has been developed. Officer Leon Mickens says that although the Carnegie Mellon RAD instructors are not yet certified to teach RAD for Men, they hope to attend the RAD International Training and Certification Conference in Tampa this upcoming spring. Slots for certification for RAD for Men and RAD for Kids fill up quickly, which is why CMU police currently don't offer these courses.

"We would love to have the RAD for Men," said Officer Mickens. "We just can't get into the courses."

RAD Systems cannot be offered as a co-ed class in accordance with Title IX, which does not allow for sports or practice sessions to be held with men and women if there is a significant amount of "bodily contact" involved in the drills. Also, each RAD course is specifically tailored to the abilities of its participants, whether it be women, men, or children, and the weaknesses of likely assailants.

University Police recognize that the time commitment for the training is high, but stress the program's value. Statistics show that between 1 and 25 percent of college-aged women are victims of some form of sexual assault every year. Last year at Carnegie Mellon, there were two reported sex offenses and two reported assaults on campus property.

"[It's] something I just made the time for," said Lockard, who said she did not find it difficult to fit the course into her schedule.

Schweinsberg, though, saw it differently. "Finding an entire Saturday that I had free was a little challenging."

In last September's RAD class, Schweinsberg was one of only two participants.

University Police hope to make RAD Systems accessible to a greater number of students by turning it into a 3-credit physical education mini-course (69-129) this spring. Class size will be limited to 30 women and will be offered twice, once in the first half of the semester and then again in the second half.

"Self-defense for women was one of the most popular P.E. classes [there]," said Schweinsberg about her undergraduate university, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Cheberenchick said that she believes that the course is more accessible to students as it's offered now: "You take a weekend and you learn everything. You don't have to schedule it in between programming and art or any other classes."

To register for this week's RAD Systems course, female students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to contact the RAD instructors at rad-pd@andrew.cmu.edu. The first class is this Wednesday in Porter Hall 125B and runs from 6 to 10 pm, and the second class is Saturday in the same room from 8 am to 4 pm, including a lunch break.