Self defense courses offered year round

By Marie Bergeonneau
Staff Writer

Scared of walking home through Ellendale Plaza at 10 p.m.? Not sure of the area's safety when withdrawing cash at the ATM? Well, you can take a friend with you, call a Campus Cruiser or take a self-defense class.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month may be half over, but self-defense programs for students, such as the Rape Aggression Defense course and intramural martial arts classes, are offered year round.
The USC Intramural-Recreation Department offers seven different martial arts classes, and the Center for Women and Men provides a "Rape Aggression Defense" program as well.
Genevieve Nine, a junior majoring in cinema who is one of the 45 female students taking the RAD class this month, said she wants to build her confidence through the course.
"I want to be able to walk around alone or with another female without the help of anybody else," Nine said.
RAD is a program available on college campuses nationwide, said Elizabeth Davenport, director of the Center for Women and Men. It has been taught at USC for four years, and all of the teachers are nationally certified, she said.
The $15 class, taught each month for a total of nine hours, "offers women viable options in the event of an eminent attack," Davenport said. "We teach women to face a sexual assault by a man far taller and heavier than them. That's why we don't offer it to men."
Male students, however, can register for co-ed martial arts classes at the Lyon Center. Classes are one or two days a week and cost $50 per semester. Kail, Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu, Dux Ninjitsu, Aikido, Jujitsu and Quyen Dao classes are open this fall.
Steven Wong, a junior majoring in business, is in a Dux Ninjitsu class. He said he decided to take the class because it teaches control of one's self and emotions.
Some other students taking self-defense classes, however, said their main motivation was what they perceive as an unsafe area around the university. Nine, who is from Seattle, said she wanted to take self-defense classes for a long time.
"But moving here pushed me to do it," she said.
Michel Likurisa, a graduate student in urban planning and development, took the RAD class as well.
"I live off campus, I have late classes at night and I often walk to take the bus early in the morning to go to work," she said. "I felt really unsafe. That's why I took the RAD class."
Statistics, however, show that assault is a rare crime in the university's area, said Department of Public Safety Deputy Chief Bob Taylor. Four cases of sexual offense, two assaults with a deadly weapon and two murders occurred on university-owned or -controlled areas from January to June this year, compared to 41 robberies and 71 burglaries during the same period.
Taylor said fear, and not statistics, is the real motivation of someone taking a self-defense class.
RAD is offered every Sunday and is open to all females. For more information, students can contact (213) 740-5602.