Team Approach Successful in Leading Sexual Harassment Prevention Program

The Sexual Harassment Prevention Program now features a team of leaders: Mark

Brimhall-Vargas and Craig Alimo. This team is responsible for planning the Sexual Harassment Prevention Program Training of Trainers, as well as coordinating all sexual harassment workshop requests that come to the Office of Human Relations Programs (OHRP) from the campus community.

Brimhall-Vargas, acting assistant director of OHRP and director of the Sexual Harassment Prevention Program (SHPP), regularly conducts training for sexual harassment and diversity facilitation. In addition to SHPP, he co-manages the campus-wide Diversity Initiative.

In contrast, Alimo is new to OHRP and the university. Alimo, who is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in college student personnel, earned a certificate of advance graduate study in social justice education from the University of Massachusetts where he was a residence director. According to Alimo, UMass offers the only Ph.D. in social justice education in the nation.

Alimo's focus is on gender issues and sexism. His internships with Mentors in Violence Prevention Project at Northeastern University and Everywoman's Center at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, teaching sexual harassment training courses for academic credit and facilitating workshops, led him to the work he's currently doing at the university.

Recently, Alimo and Brimhall-Vargas organized and facilitated the first day-long SHPP Training of Trainers of the semester. "A small group of students attended but it was a great training because there was a lot of flexibility to adapt the workshop based on student's needs and interests," says Alimo. "It provided an atmosphere for a lot of learning to take place, plus it allowed for more space and time for each participant."

The participants learned about many aspects of sexual harassment, including:

* An opportunity to experience a "peer workshop" first hand;

* A presentation by Cynthia Trombly of George Mason University, who shared her personal experience with sexual harassment;

* A presentation by John Zacker, associate director of judicial programs, who discussed the legal aspects of sexual harassment; and

* Guidance on how to design and facilitate social justice education (as it relates to the

SHPP workshops the peer trainers will be facilitating) and how to encourage student

participation in the workshops.

After successfully completing training, each peer trainer shadows experienced trainers

a few times before facilitating a workshop. All workshops are conducted by diverse

facilitators, such as a man and woman or two people from different racial or ethnic backgrounds.

"The [training] was great," says Kyra Mumbauer, a freshman anthropology major. "It was really informative, especially the legal aspects of sexual harassment. I learned how to facilitate a workshop and how to make it a valuable experience for the participants."

According to Alimo, " . . . we would like to do more in the future (looking into the possibility of offering a peer training class for credit like the one at UMass). We are always looking for more participation from students, faculty, staff and administration in the Sexual Harassment Prevention Program," he says.

For more information about the Sexual Harassment Prevention Program, contact Alimo at

405-7563 or calimo@wam.umd.edu; or Brimhall-Vargas at 405-2840 or mb333@umail.umd. edu.

-- JAMIE FEEHERY-SIMMONS