The first 6 to 8 weeks at college can be the most exciting and challenging for a first-year student. We here at the SHARPP Center are here to help support you as you are navigating topics like sex, alcohol, consent, relationships and personal safety. If you haven’t already, you will receive an introduction to these topics through the Wildcats United required online courses which you can complete before you come to campus. As a new community member at UNH, you have both rights and responsibilities to guide how you interact with the rest of campus. To learn more about these, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with UNH’s Student Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities (SRRR). The SRRR includes information regarding your protection and rights under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. Here at the SHARPP Center, our services are for all community members. To help, we have provided responses to the most commonly asked questions that we get each year from incoming students about interpersonal violence, consent, and safety.
If you have additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.
At the SHARPP Center, we work with individuals to help them define their experiences in ways that feel comfortable and make sense to them. This may or may not include a label like, “sexual assault.”
When someone feels impacted by an experience that may have been harmful, unwanted, or non-consensual, we work with them regardless of the label they use for their experience or whether or not their experience may fit into a framework that is recognized under the law or institutional policy. However, both NH State Law and UNH Policy prohibit sexual assault. Each defines them differently and our advocates can help someone explore those differences if they are relevant to someone’s options and desired outcomes. Should you desire to read more, you can find NH’s definition of Sexual Assault in RSA 632-A:1 or UNH’s definition of consent and sexual misconduct in the Student Rights, Rules, and Responsibilities (SRRR).
We consider sexual assault a form of interpersonal violence (IPV). IPV also includes sexual harassment, stalking, and relationship abuse. The SHARPP Center supports survivors of all forms of interpersonal violence.
To ensure that sexual encounters are consensual, communication before and during ANY sexual activity is a must! Consent is an agreement that involves seeking (asking) and receiving (getting an answer) expressed permission to engage in sexual activity or contact. Although it may be possible to seek and express permission without words (example: a head nod), body language can be easy to misinterpret. It's important to look for clear, enthusiastic consent.
Does The SHARPP Center exist at UNH because a lot of assaults happen here?No. The SHARPP Center grew out of a grassroots movement in the 1980s in response to a sexual assault on campus that received local and national attention. The Center was created to help provide adequate support services to survivors and as a means through which the University community could be educated on the issues of interpersonal violence, healthy relationships, and rape culture.
Interpersonal violence is not more prevalent at UNH than on other college campuses. National statistics show that people ages 18-25 experience sexual violence at higher rates than any other age demographic.
On college campuses, as in other contexts, interpersonal violence is most often perpetrated by someone known to the survivor rather than by a stranger; for instance, romantic partners, friends, or acquaintances. The trauma caused by this kind of experience is no less severe than that of stranger-perpetrated violence.