Take Back the Night and Events in General
April is always an extremely packed month for students at Willamette. Not only do we hit the ground running academically after Spring Break, but April seems to be the magical month of cool events on this campus. I am currently stretched between my thesis (which seems to shrivel in importance over time), the events that SHE is planning and the other amazing discussions, presentations, etc. that are going on on campus. Just to give you an idea of what happened last week alone:
S.H.E, Willamette University’s women’s group, hosted Take Back The Night, an open mic forum designed to end the silence surrounding violence against women and to provide survivors and their allies a supportive environment in which they can speak out and share their experiences. There was a candlelight vigil in conjunction with the open mic. It will take place Wednesday April 9th at 8:00 PM, in Cone Chapel on Willamette's campus. (The TBTN website can be viewed here: http://www.takebackthenight.org) We had over 75 people in attendance and it was a particularly poignant event that I believe will help recommit our institution to supporting survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
A FILM BY JACKSON KATZ:Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity Tuesday, Apr 8th was shown. Jackson Katz spoke that evening to an audience of a couple of hundred, too. We had all the state's Men Against Violence groups there and he presented "More than a Few Good Men: American Manhood and Violence
Against Women". This event is a really good example of institutional support for student's ideas. Cliff Leek wanted to bring Katz to campus and managed to secure funding to do so from various sources on campus. Several of my friends have managed to bring extremely cool presenters to campus simply by asking departments on campus for money!
My thesis consultant helped to bring the movie Maquilapolis: City of Factories to our campus. The movie is about women working in factories along the border. Several women from the movie came to speak and the directors and producers advocated on campus about this issue.
WEB brought David Coleman: The Date Doctor to campus. WEB stands for the Willamette Events Board, which puts on movies, speakers, etc. throughout the year. This presenter was supposedly rated the best in the country and talked about healthy relationships and signs of unhealthy relationships.
Finally, Margaret Trout presented her "Last Lecture". Margaret Trout, on top of being an AMAZING person is the director of the Bishop Wellness Center. The last lecture series is put on by the Residence Life halls, which basically poses the following question to a cool individual on campus: "if this were your last lecture ever, what would you say." Margaret talked about wellness on many levels, dissected the meaning of the bumper stickers on her car and went through the cycle of happiness for us.
With all that going on, it is a wonder that anybody got any work done! I certainly didn't, which is why I'm stuck indoors on another beautiful day catching up on school work. What I've enjoyed the most about my time at WU is that this place is so much more than a school. While our classwork is important, the institution also makes sure there are ample activities available to help us grow in all capacities.