2008 Woodie Awards
Hands come together for Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Skylar James
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: News
| |
|
"We're trying to reach out to students, faculty and staff at SSU to raise awareness of sexual assault," said Skye Nashelsky, leader of the sexual assault awareness and prevention team at SSU. "We do things throughout the year, but April is really when we full on promote all these events."
As the title of the event would suggest, peoples' hands played a role. All participants dipped the under side of their hand onto whichever tin of paint they desired, and then placed their painted hand onto a large, snow-white cloth canvas. Afterwards they signed by their mark.
Before this took place, however, the participants were asked to sign a contract. This document pledged that the signer would not hurt or abuse anyone in any way, and to recognize the ways in which their actions may affect others.
"All these student who are signing this pledge are saying that their not going to be the one who [commits abuse], but clearly someone who is most likely will not sign a pledge like this," said Katie Wolfram, student coordinator for SAFE. "At least we can get that information out there and you can see that there are so many people who are against this."
The contract also stated that by signing, the individuals acknowledge that sexual violence is an issue both at SSU and in society, more generally.
"It's a simple pledge, but it really gets people to think about it," said Nashelsky. "It's something that people don't pledge to themselves or others, and they shouldn't have to, but we live in a culture that normalizes sexual assault, and it's ignored."
"I like everything that SAFE does. They really bring awareness to SSU's campus, and this is just getting students involved with little hand prints and by signing the pledge," said attendee Heather Hill. "It's interactive learning, and interactive fun. I do think that by doing activities like this, people are becoming more aware."
On April 9 the demonstration was moderately populated, as an off-campus housing fair pulled in numerous people passing by. According to Wolfram, the increase in traffic helped their cause.
"For this actual event we will probably get 50 to 150 students who will actually put there handprints on, but we can have anywhere from the 150 to 2000 student who walk by it in the day," said Wolfram.
SAFE was originally a class on campus, but it was quickly realized that there were more issue's than could be addressed. In response, it was turned into a club, and shortly after, the club created SAAM.
THWT was not originally an event during SAAM at SSU.
"A group of students went to a national conference and saw [THWH], presented by other college campuses, and decided they wanted to bring it to SSU about three years ago," said Heather Howard, Director of the Center For Student Leadership Involvement and Service.
The event carried on into the mid day, attracting students from all around campus, including some in participation with events taking place across the quad.
"I think [this event] is something good that we should participate in," said SSU student Nick Kane. "I have a lot of respect for women, I have a girlfriend and a Mom who I love. I'm also in TKE (Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity), and it's something we stand for and I wanted to express that."
THWH was the first event of the month. There are still three major events approaching.
The Clothesline Project has run since 1993, and entails shirts being displayed across the field surrounded by Stevenson Hall, Salazar Hall and the Commons.
Each shirt represents someone who was in someway affected by sexual abuse. The shirts are color-coordinated based on what happened, and have a message of some sort written by the anonymous contributor. This will be presented in the afternoons of April 16 and 17.
"It's like airing out societies dirty laundry," said Nashelsky.
On April 23, SAFE will sponsor the Denim Day. This was created in 1997 when a 17-year-old female was raped by her driving instructor. Her driving instructor was released after an appeal, which concluded the sex was consensual because the victim's denim pants were so tight she had to help take them off. Women everywhere are encouraged to wear denim pants on this day.
The climax event of SAAM, titled "Take Back the Night," will occur on April 24 at 7 p.m. in the Cooperage. This is an open-microphone night, devoted to personal testimonies of sexual abuse and assault.
As "Take Back the Night" is the most popular event, and most limited due to the space constrains of the Cooperage, it is advised that interested people arrive early.
For more information, contact SAFE by e-mail at Safe@sonoma.edu.
Be the first to comment on this story