“The reality is you can point to each person in the room and know they each deserve the award,” Franklin-Craft said. “I know that our department does a lot of frontline work, but it’s because they had training from the people in this room and can refer students to those same people that they are good.”

The Department of Residence Life was one of three departments nominated for the third annual Teal Ribbon Award, said Barb Walkington, a therapist with the MSU Sexual Assault Program. Walkington, who created the award, said the Department of Study Abroad and Department of Student Life also were nominated.

“Departments can be nominated by staff, faculty or students,” Walkington said. “After that, a panel chooses a department based on the criteria of initiative, leadership, collaboration across campus and going above and beyond — doing something that isn’t a regular function of their job.”

In the case of the Department of Residence Life, Walkington said the dedication of the staff to working with students and developing policies and responses to sexual assault was an important factor.

“They have also created a mandatory referral service for sexual violence … that provides seamless access to services so those students can’t fall through the cracks,” Walkington said.

MSU police Detective Valerie O’Brien said programs such as the ones in the Department of Residence Life have enabled the police and campus organizations to effectively trade information.

“When I started it was very independent,” O’Brien said. “We just did our own investigation and they would do their own and neither would ever know what the other one was doing.”

O’Brien said with mandatory reporting the police and campus officials can work through the process together so everyone is on the same page.

Among the people responsible for choosing the award recipient was College of Music Dean James Forger. It was Forger’s development, implementation of educational seminars and staff training to prevent sexual harassment and abuse from occurring within the college that led to the creation of the Teal Ribbon Award.

Forger said although the nominated departments had an impact and positively contributed to the campus, the Department of Residence Life provided a “cross-cutting model.” Forger said he hopes to continue to see growth in the number of organizations addressing the issues of sexual harassment and abuse at the university.

“Each year, continuing — awareness-wise — to recognize people for their contributions, I think it will grow (the programs and) make it safer for students, faculty, staff and other community members,” Forger said.