The Women’s Resource Center plans to beat up a guy named BOB Monday.

But don’t worry, BOB is just a sparring dummy.

BOB, which stands for Body Opponent Bag, has been spotted at orientation, sobriety checkpoints, and at the Raza Unity celebration.

Lorraine Martinez, a health educator in the Student Health Center, is also teaching the course.

He’ll be the target of jabs and blows as the center holds its first self-defense class from 5-8 p.m. Monday in the University Union’s Redwood Room.

“BOB has got to be the most popular guy on campus,” said Jessica Higgins, co-instructor of the course and Violence and Sexual Assault Support Services educator with the Women’s Resource Center.

Higgins and Martinez learned the self-defense maneuvers from Sacramento State police officer, Vic Vinson.

“It’s not as comprehensive as some programs out there,” Higgins said, but it will “hit the high points that affect our campus.”

Acquaintance assault prevention is the most relevant for college students, Higgins said, and will be the focus of the class.

“Because you’re familiar with your attacker, there’s a lot of red flags to watch for,” she said.

The methods she teaches emphasize escaping quickly with minimal force, and without doing detrimental damage to the attacker.

“They will send a message without sending [the attacker] to emergency,” she said.

The Student Health Center is co-sponsoring the free event.All students, including men, can sign up by contacting the WRC and reserving one of 25 spaces available. If popular demand exceeds 25 seats, another class will be offered the next week.

Self-defense can bring out feelings of paranoia in women who fear attack, Higgins said, but she would rather have self-defense be empowering.

“(Women) can go out in this world and date and go to parties and be aware,” she said.

This awareness enables women to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations, she said.

Working with BOB gives confidence to women who might be intimidated combating a male attacker.

The self-defense training dummy weighs 270 pounds and adjusts to a height of 6 foot 2 inches. It has a sculpted body with a sternum notch, square jaw, and flat nose so you can “get a good sense of what you’re going for,” Higgins said.

Women of all ages and experience levels would be able to perform the self-defense moves.

While assault is no laughing matter, Martinez and Higgins would like to inject some fun into the course.

“Lorraine and I are kind of a clown act to begin with,” Higgins said.

Higgins and Martinez held a workshop during this year’s Hornet Welcome called “What Every Girl Should Know,” which gave a preview of the self-defense class to incoming freshmen.

“It’s inspiring to see such capable women out there,” Martinez said of the women in the workshop. “Maybe they can leave here without an assault, and maybe we can play a small part in that.”