Joyce Tofte, SMSU Violence Prevention & Education Coordinator, Mustang Market Coordinator, Men’s/Women’s Rugby Coach, and Deputy Title IX Coordinator/Investigator
The Mustang Buzz interviewed Joyce Tofte to learn more about her life and her career as SMSU’s Violence Prevention & Education Coordinator. Tofte first began working at SMSU Fall 2023 for University Public Safety and accepted the role of Violence Prevention & Education Coordinator Fall 2024. She is also the Mustang Market Coordinator, Men’s/Women’s Rugby Coach, and Deputy Title IX Coordinator/Investigator for SMSU.
Q: Where are you from?
A: “I’m a military brat so I often say I’m from the world, but I was born in Midwest City, OK.”
Q: Where did you go to college?
A: “I started my high ed journey at SMSU, then finished at UW-Milwaukee for my bachelor’s and went to Penn State for my Masters.”
Q: Have you earned any awards and/or honors?
A: “As of recent, I was a Facing Race Awards nominee in 2023. Last year the University received the 2024 Iowa & Minnesota Campus Compact Engaged Campus Award for Community Collaboration for the Social Support Collaborative (SSC). The SSC is composed of Western Mental Health, New Horizons Crisis Center, University Public Safety, and Women’s Rural Advocacy Program. After identifying a need for students to be connected with intersecting resources in the community, the 4 agencies have worked closely together to support the sexual violence prevention needs of the University, conducting trainings and in classroom presentation, hosting events, and have been on campus for outreach events during peak times of the year. April of 2024 I received a Badass Minnesotans Award from Minnesota Women’s Press for my work in gender-based violence, anti-racism education, and college safety. https://www.womenspress.com/joyce-tofte-needs-hopes-in-southwest-minnesota/”
Q: How long have you been working at SMSU for?
A: “I started in University Public Safety Fall of 2023 and accepted the role of Violence Prevention & Education Coordinator/Mustang Market Coordinator Fall of 2024. I also coach men’s and women’s rugby at SMSU.”
Q: What has been the most challenging part of your job as the Violence Prevention & Education Coordinator at SMSU?
A: “Violence is broad term. It includes everything from targeted violence, sexual assault, suicide, intimate partner violence, bullying, hazing, harassment, etc. It takes the buy in of multiple different groups to help raise awareness of these issues. Additionally, there’s an attitude of _____ doesn’t happen here on our campus because we are blessed to be a very safe campus compared to many institutions. But we also know that crimes are underreported.”
Q: What is your favorite part of your job as Violence Prevention & Education Coordinator?
A: “It seems conflicting, but the challenges are also the most rewarding parts of the role. Because violence is such a broad term, this role allows the University to see violence prevention through a collective health lens.”
Q: What do you do for anti-violence education–classes, programs, interaction with student housing or clubs like LGBTQA?
A: “For Gold Rush Days we brought in Men As Peacemakers to do a presentation on Partying 101: How to Make Friends and Influence Environments covering the BEST Party Model. We have also done trainings and presentations for RAs, MPP and AOS Summer Bridge, and Public Safety before fall semester began. During the school year I tabled for Homecoming, providing information on consent & bystander intervention. Through the Title IX office I’ve conducted Title IX reporting training for staff, faculty, and administrators. The Social Support Collaborative has done presentations throughout the school year in LEP classes and with Residence Life.”
Q: Is there much violence and harassment on the SMSU campus and in the Marshall community and how do you address that in your job?
A: “That is a difficult question to answer, right? Any incidence of violence is too many for our University community. 1 sexual assault is too many. 1 suicide is too many. 1 incident of hate crime, 1 incident of domestic violence….and our University community is larger than the physical SMSU campus or the Marshall community. The expansion of our Title IX team and our intentional efforts this academic year to increase reporting is helping us paint a clearer picture of what some of these issues look like on our campus and what education needs there are. There are multiple barriers to reporting violence; ease of access, lack of shared language (not understanding that incident X is sexual violence), fear of repercussions, social & cultural norms…. Our online students experience things behind closed doors that they don’t necessarily have the same level of support to navigate as our on-campus or local commuter students do. But they are just as much a part of our University community. Providing online trainings and the ability to access support resources virtually becomes that much more integral.”
Q: Does your job relate to students only or other groups on campus too–faculty, staff, administration?
A: “The job relates to our campus community as a whole; students, faculty, staff and administration.”
To close out the interview, Tofte was asked if she had any additional closing thoughts or remarks that she would like to personally share with the SMSU community. She said, “To do this work effectively, to positively change environments, takes the buy in of EVERYONE.”