V-Week's events began with the Feb. 14 "Proud to be a Woman Dinner" and culminated Tuesday in the annual performance of "The Vagina Monologues."
V-Week is a programming extension of V-Day, an international movement founded by Eve Ensler, playwright of "The Vagina Monologues," to combat violence against women and girls, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"Having so many events out there and having so much PR around [V-Week] gets people talking in their dorm room, in their houses, on their sports teams," said Allie Bradford '12, a volunteer at Women's Information Services an Upper Valley organization that supports community efforts against domestic and sexual violence who collaborated with V-Week planners.
Consistent programming throughout the week ensured that issues of violence were on people's minds, according to Hikaru Yamagishi '12, a programming intern at the Center for Women and Gender.
"In the past we haven't necessarily had as many events, and they've been more scattered," assistant Director of the Center for Women and Gender Stephanie Chesnut said. "This year we made a very concerted effort to have everything going on at one time."
The variety of programming "allow[ed] a space that is not being critical of any one gender," and offered new ways to discuss issues pertaining to sexual assault, Kashay Sanders '11, a programming intern with the Center for Women and Gender, said.
The week's events, ranging from a comedy show by performer Cindy Pierce on Feb. 21 to student accounts of experiences with sexual assault at the Speak Out panel on Feb. 22, were intended to attract as wide an audience as possible, organizers interview by The Dartmouth said.
"Our hope was to provide a lot of different types of events, so that different constituencies on campus could feel welcome," Chesnut said. "I hope that everybody was able to find something in the V-Week events that they felt comfortable going to and that met their needs."
Several organizers cited Pierce's show as an event intended to attract students who might not have previous involvement with issues of sexual violence.
Pierce may have drawn audience members already familiar with her, as she runs an inn in Etna, N.H., where sports teams hold retreats and where some Dartmouth students are employed, according to Yamagishi.
Several organizers said they hoped to encourage male involvement in efforts against sexual assault through the V-Week campaign.
Despite predominantly female audiences at certain events, organizers said that V-Week was intended to be accessible to and welcoming of male students.
"I think that men on some level are somewhat nervous when they come to these types of events as to whether or not they'll be accepted, and to them I would say that we will accept you wholeheartedly," Chesnut said. "We want to be partners in change on this. We don't stand around saying, You're the problem here.' We really want to work in collaboration with the men on this campus to institute a culture of change, of inclusiveness and of safety and respect."
Various campus organizations joined together to organize V-Week events, according to organizers. FemNEW the Feminist Network for the Exchange of Wisdom, a student organization that plans events related to feminist issues co-sponsored the Cindy Pierce comedy show and the Feb. 26 Safe Space Open Bar at One Wheelock.
Yamagishi, co-founder of FemNEW, said she overheard snippets of conversation about school policy on sexual assault and global and gender issues at the Open Bar.
"My reasoning of doing an open bar is that a lot of times at Dartmouth we talk about sexual assault and gender dynamics in a classroom setting during the day, and it's easy to say these things during the day," she said. "Personally, I feel like there's a different mentality when you're out at night, and somehow there's less accountability. Anastassia [Radeva '12] at WISE, who I worked with, and I wanted to merge daytime and nighttime at Dartmouth."
The College has implemented new efforts against sexual assault this term, including increased Rape Aggression Defense instructor certifications and an updated Student Handbook for Victims of Sexual Assault.
The Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault was formed this summer, and produced recommendations for improving College resources for sexual assault issues at the end of the Fall term, The Dartmouth previously reported.
"There's definitely a sense that [College President Jim Yong Kim] is making [sexual assault] a priority, and it always helps to have institutional support," Chesnut said.
Fundraising conducted throughout V-Week benefited WISE and Women for Women International, Yamagishi said. As federal stimulus grants end, WISE must increasingly rely on community donations, Kate Rohdenburg, prevention and education coordinator at WISE, said.
V-Week was supported by the Special Programming and Events Committee, Amnesty International, FemNEW and Alpha Delta fraternity, as well as Kappa Delta, Sigma Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Delta Epsilon and Epsilon Kappa Theta sororities, according to a summary of V-Time events printed in The Vagina Monologues program. Link Up, Sexual Assault Peer Advisors and Mentors Against Violence also supported V-Time events, according to the program.
Other V-Week events included a showing of the documentary "Very Young Girls" (2007) and a mental health defense workshop.
