The Tartan

By Tiffany Chang

On a college campus where students’ need for self-defense is rapidly changing, how can self-defense education be made more safe and accessible?

That was the question that Carnegie Mellon senior Grace Oualline and the Carnegie Mellon Police Department (CMUPD) strove to answer when creating the various self-defense programs now available on campus.

Oualline reflected on a harrowing experience that led her to begin advocating for self-defense education.

“During my freshman year, I was walked home from a party by someone I called a very close friend, and then was sexually assaulted,” she said. “During the assault, he was on top of me, and I really did not know how to throw him off or what to do.”

“Many of my friends have gone through similar experiences where they have been in a situation where they do not know how to defend themselves,” Oualline continued. “I really wanted to learn self-defense, and there was also a need in the community to educate others on how to defend themselves.”

CMUPD Sergeant Mark Villasenor and Detective Sarah Adams also emphasized the need for self-defense among the university population.

“I spent my earlier years at the University of Pittsburgh Police Department, where I ran community relations as a sergeant,” Villasenor said. “They ran a SAFE class over there, where they had instructors such as Detective Adams and the other instructors that we have here. We saw the success of it, and the students really saw that there was a need for it.”

Carnegie Mellon’s flagship self-defense program since the late 1980s had been the Rape Aggresion Defense (R.A.D.) program, a mini-course established by CMUPD Officer Joe Bernarding.

“We do a lot of PowerPoints about risk reduction strategies, and then we teach hands-on techniques,” Adams explained. “At the very end, we go through a simulation portion.”

However, it became apparent that the structure of R.A.D. no longer aligned with the evolving needs of the CMU community. “The program was outdated, the materials were outdated,” Villasenor said. “There wasn’t any support for the R.A.D. training.”

The most glaring issue was the time commitment required. “The requirement was at least 12 hours, and we were putting it on all semester long,”  Adams said. Oualline added, “I was looking into taking one of these classes, and realizing it would be extremely difficult for me to do so. I could not take the self-defense mini due to schedule conflicts, and what CMU student has time to take R.A.D.?”

Other issues included R.A.D.’s policy of female-only classes, whereas Sergeant Villasenor and Detective Adams wished to include all demographics in their self-defense workshops. There were also concerns regarding the curriculum of the course, based on the R.A.D. System principles by Larry N. Nadeau.

“The R.A.D. curriculum was not by our choice,” Adams said. “We went through a certified program by certified instructors, and we were putting that training based off of what they provided us. Unfortunately, it’s been in existence since 1989, and that material hasn’t been updated to the current times.” 

One solution to these problems arose through Grace Oualline’s founding of the Women’s Self Defense Club (WSDC) during her sophomore year.

“I wanted to create a low commitment club that was as accessible as possible to students across CMU,” Oualline said. “It is only one hour on Sundays, so it doesn’t conflict with any classes. You are not required to come every week, and we teach a new skill each week, so if you miss a previous class, you will still be able to learn something new in the next class. Therefore, Carnegie Mellon students can come whenever they have the time and are willing to learn.”

This April, the CMUPD and Oualline launched the new Scotty Strong Defense Classes Program, the result of a joint effort to bring self-defense education to the university. Sergeant Villasenor recalled, “Grace had approached us and said, ‘Hey, would the Carnegie Mellon Police Department be interested in doing a self-defense class for the community?’” 

When designing Scotty Strong, lead instructor Detective Adams and the CMUPD made sure to address and rectify R.A.D.’s previous shortcomings. “It’s more of a condensed, very short version of R.A.D.,”  Adams said. “Because R.A.D. is time consuming, Scotty Strong comes in. We offer the basics of self-defense for about an hour and a half or 2 hours, and [students] find that that’s better suited for their schedule,”  Villasenor said.

Changes were also made to R.A.D.’s curriculum and target demographic. “We went through a new certification called SHARP and meshed both curriculums to fit our campus community. So it’s a little bit more modernized, a little bit of a mix of both,”  Adams remarked. Although the R.A.D. program was only inclusive of women, the Scotty Strong initiative is open to people of all gender identities, Villasenor said.

Now, after more than 30 years of service to the Carnegie Mellon community, R.A.D. is officially being retired. “We are transitioning out of the R.A.D. program,” Adams said. “This is our final semester meeting with it.”

However, the lessons taught in these new classes will most likely prove to be timeless.

“Because we talk about different scenarios in the class, I think it’s eye-opening to a lot of folks to take a step back in their normal, everyday life and realize anything could occur, and then these strategies and tools that we give them bring it all together,” Villasenor said. “I think at the end of the day, after the class is done, they have a broader sense of what is transpiring, and we give them the skills for basic survival. This could save them down the road, where there could potentially be a life-or-death situation.”

“My club members tell me stories about how they get grabbed in social situations, either by the waist or dragged by the arm.” Oualline recounted. “They were able to get out of the grip immediately and get away from whoever grabbed them. That is the most common skill that our students use outside of class, and is the most common skill I have had to use myself, especially at various clubs in Pittsburgh.”

Most invaluable to participants of Carnegie Mellon’s self-defense programs is the sense of empowerment.

“Seeing those individuals empowered in learning those skills and tools, they come out as a better person,” Adams observed. “And that’s why we have a sense of giving back to the community at CMUPD, and this is one of the ways that we’d like to give back to keep crime down and make sure that our students, employees, staff, and faculty are not victims — that they can fight back.”

The next Scotty Strong Defense Classes will take place on October 23 and November 13.