The MTSU Police Department is expanding its realistic safety course offerings this fall to help women across the campus community add more tools to their personal defense plans.

The popular Rape Aggression Defense, or RAD, courses will resume Tuesdays beginning Oct. 16 for four weeks from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Graduates of MTSU’s RAD courses will also be able to take two new series of safety courses: the four-hour Aerosol Defense Options, which is set Saturday, Oct. 13, at 11:30 a.m. and Saturday, Nov. 3, at 9:30 a.m.; and Advanced Self Defense, a three-Saturday course set Nov. 10 and 17 and Dec. 1 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Students in the introductory RAD course learn practical, easy techniques for awareness, prevention, risk reduction and risk avoidance and receive hands-on training in basic defense and counteracting assaults by both strangers and acquaintances.

The Aerosol Defense Options course teaches participants about carrying pepper spray and other aerosol self-defense options as well as how to purchase a self-defense spray and use it for protection. The Advanced Self Defense course builds on the common-sense strategies taught in the basic class and covers more prone defense techniques, encountering multiple subjects and even low- and diffused-light training simulations.

This fall’s free RAD classes, taught by MTSU’s nationally certified instructors, are open to all female MTSU students, faculty and staff and to the public.

More class details are available here, and you can register for the courses here.

Organizers say that participants in the basic RAD class must attend all four sessions to complete their training. The new courses also require attendance at all sessions to ensure proper training and certification.

Class size is limited because of increasing community interest, so the department is encouraging participants to enroll as soon as possible.

The Rape Aggression Defense System, a comprehensive program of realistic defense tactics and techniques, is designed for women age 13 and older with no previous experience or background in physical skills training. Instructors also can accommodate any participant’s disabilities.

MTSU’s police department is now in its 15th year of offering the RAD self-defense course to the campus community.

After participants register for this fall’s MTSU courses, instructors will contact them with more details about class attendance. For more information about MTSU’s RAD classes, email rad@mtsu.edu.

— Gina E. Fann (gina.fann@mtsu.edu)

A Rape Aggression Defense Systems instructor, wearing red protective gear, tangles with a student during a RAD course at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, in this file photo. The MTSU Police Department is again teaching the basic RAD course this fall for the campus community beginning Tuesday, Oct. 16, and is expanding the course offerings to include Aerosol Defense Options and Advanced Self Defense, too. (U.S. Air Force photo courtesy of Airman First Class David Bulkley/Luke AFB)