The University of Northern Colorado plans to reorganize the leadership of an assault survivors program next year, sparking opposition from a former director of the program.
Imani Lindberg, a UNC graduate and former director of the Assault Survivors Advocacy Program, started the Save the Assault Survivors Advocacy Program petition due to concerns about the future of the program.
Though the program will be managed by a director in the Office of Health Promotion starting in January, university officials say the program will remain independent. Its services will also continue to be confidential, Vice President of Student Affairs Keith Humphrey said.
Lindberg said her concern with the structure change lies with one person overseeing both the Assault Survivors Advocacy Program, or ASAP, and the Office of Health Promotion. In the past, ASAP had a designated leader who could prioritize the program’s mission, she said.
“It feels like UNC is taking a step backward,” Lindberg said.
ASAP provides confidential 24-hour, year-round crisis response and intervention, advocacy and resources to survivors of sexual violence, relationship or intimate partner violence and stalking. The Office of Health Promotion provides wellness education about responsible substance use, mental health resources and comprehensive sexual health education.
Humphrey mentioned the reorganization in a Nov. 17 email to Student Affairs colleagues. The email included other budget impacts, including staff layoffs that were completed last month, as the university has tackled a $14 million budget deficit projected into 2027.
Lindberg left the role in late August before the announcement of the layoffs, and the position has since been eliminated.
UNC spends about $133,000 annually to operate ASAP, according to UNC spokeswoman Deanna Herbert. The director position the university is eliminating accounted for about $83,000 of the annual $133,000 total expense, she added.
UNC said ASAP’s stand-alone status will be maintained with the Office of Health Promotion. The director overseeing the Office of Health Promotion and ASAP is a change similar to the recent past when both programs were led by the same supervisor.
“With this restructure, ASAP’s mission is unchanged,” Herbert said. “The program retains its own budget and the same operating structure — a team of confidential peer advocates who provide victims advocacy support and a graduate assistant to manage the peer advocates.”
In the past 10 years, the Office of Health Promotion, formerly Prevention Education, and ASAP reported to the same assistant director. The assistant director was in an office known as Prevention Education and Advocacy Services.
Around 2019, UNC created a separate division of Student Affairs and the Office of Health Promotion and ASAP were moved to different areas within UNC. Both programs had different job titles and reporting structures within its ranks, Herbert said.
Lindberg said ASAP-trained student advocates respond to calls on campus and in the Greeley community to help victims. ASAP student advocates undergo a mandatory 40-hour training program on sexual violence, intimate partner violence, stalking and advocacy, according to the website.
Advocates are available anytime at the ASAP hotline, 970-351-4040. Lindberg said the office receives calls from locations outside of campus and beyond Greeley. The advocates then try to help the callers find resources in their home area.
“We’d then connect them with the SAVA (Sexual Assault Victim Advocate) Center or A Woman’s Place,” Lindberg said. “We’d get calls from people in Denver. It speaks to the training the students receive.”
Lindberg said the petition had 241 signatures as of last week.
The petition says the ASAP model is supported by the 50-year-old National Organization for Victim Advocacy. Known as NOVA, the organization backs aspiring advocates, victim assistance professionals, crisis responders and others working with victims of crime and crisis.
Lindberg said she sent the petition to NOVA and a contact signed on.
Lindberg said maintaining a dedicated standalone advocacy office is central to ensuring confidentiality, specialized training, survivor trust and alignment with established best practices in campus-based victim advocacy.
“Service availability alone does not guarantee service effectiveness, and the structural positioning of ASAP plays a critical role in survivor safety, trauma informed response and compliance with state expectations regarding victim advocacy training,” Lindberg wrote in an emailed response to Humphrey.
Lindberg is also concerned a change might lead to more access to ASAP information. Humphrey said that won’t be an issue, saying a change in the model is consistent with others in the U.S. And it’s one ASAP has operated under in the past, he added.
“Confidentiality doesn’t change, and we take every report seriously and give them all the tools they need to report,” he said. “Students will experience no difference in what they received from UNC if they report an assault, gender-based violence, domestic violence or stalking.”
Humphrey said the same to Lindberg in a letter acknowledging he received the petition.
“UNC remains committed to offering all the same programs and services that ASAP has historically offered,” he wrote.
ASAP was established at UNC in 1993. It is one of the longest-running campus advocacy programs using student-volunteer peer advocates in the U.S., and it was the first one set up in Colorado, according to the university.
A director position for ASAP was created in 2024-25. It is one of 35 vacant staff positions that were eliminated to tackle the budget issues.
Lindberg was the director of advocacy services, overseeing ASAP at the time she left the role. She started work at ASAP in 2022, two years after graduating from UNC. Lindberg was a student advocate for the program from 2017 until she graduated.
She said ASAP supported at least 100 survivors in each of her three years with the program. Lindberg said burnout was one of the reasons she left the job. Victim advocacy is difficult, and it’s not the type of work that should be led by an office with one professional staff member, she said.
“I encourage UNC to halt the merger and figure out any way they can (for ASAP) to remain as an independent office,” Lindberg said. “Rethink this decision and recognize the impacts of this decision.”
Humphrey said his greatest concern is the petition might chill students from reporting an incident, adding the university assures information will be kept confidential.
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