Sexual Assault Awareness Month, dedicated to raising awareness of sexual violence and its effect on the community, will hold new and regular programming throughout next week. Movement Against Violence, formerly known as Mentors Against Violence, will facilitate student discussions about what campus sexual violence prevention could look like.
The third Student and Presidential Committee on Sexual Assault Symposium kicked off Sexual Assault Awareness Month earlier in April. The Center for Gender and Student Engagement will host a T-shirt-making event today for the Clothesline Project, a movement to boost awareness about relationship and sexual violence.
This year’s events will encourage students to become more involved in changing the culture surrounding sexual violence.
“We want to move more towards individuals recognizing their role and trying to move past just being aware and saying, ‘how can I get involved?’” MAV co-director Alex Leach ’14 said. “‘How am I a part of this culture? How can I work to change the culture into a place where this doesn’t happen and it’s not okay?’”
Leach added that she hopes the programing will give participants the necessary tools to help survivors and show that the College community is there to support them.
The T-shirts decorated today will hang in the Collis atrium throughout the week, a project that has existed at the College since the 1990s.
“In light of the ongoing campus discussions that have been so prevalent as of late, I’m grateful we as a community have this opportunity to affirm our support for survivors and discuss sexual violence on our campus in the safe spaces provided by Sexual Assault Awareness Month,” Holli Weed ’14, who has worked extensively to combat sexual assault on campus, said in an email.
Weed added that she appreciates that the series of events provides quality programming and opportunities for discussion every year.
The annual Take Back the Night rally and march will be held Tuesday, following Monday’s poster-making session for the event. The rally, part of a national campaign that promotes every individual’s right to walk without the threat of sexual assault or harassment, will feature speeches followed by a march around campus. After the march, students can share thoughts and reflections on the Green, Leach said.
“I think it would be really powerful to see an increased number of people to show campus has changed and progressed to a place where people want to take part,” she said.
Sexual assault peer advisor Alice Morrison ’14 said she thinks Take Back the Night will be more powerful and more enthusiastic this year because it can serve as a public platform for issues of sexual assault.
Denim Day, to be held Wednesday, encourages students to wear denim as part of a national campaign, which started around 15 years ago after the Italian Supreme Court overturned a rape conviction because the alleged victim wore tight jeans. The campaign protests the court decision, when justices said the alleged victim must have given consent by helping remove her jeans.
MAV will hold its facilitations about a year after last year’s day of canceled classes, seeking to continue the conversations that began that day, MAV co-director Jill Horing ’15 said.
“In the past what we’ve done is just go into Greek houses and do facilitations with the members, but we’ve heard a lot of interest from people, and sexual assault is obviously a very spoken about topic, so we thought it would be great to open up a conversation to anyone who wants to join on campus,” she said.
Horing said the facilitations, held three times during the day, will revolve around a discussion-based model and prompt students to think of potential methods for preventing sexual violence.
Leach said MAV facilitations will show that campus is ready to see how individuals can change the culture around sexual assault.
“How to Help a Friend” is the last event of the week. The program, hosted by SAPA members and sexual assault awareness program coordinator Rebekah Carrow, will teach participants how to react if a friend discloses that he or she has experienced sexual violence.
