Calvin News

The Sexual Assault Prevention Team at Calvin College has come up with a series of creative ways to commemorate Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which falls in April. The events are geared toward educating the Calvin community—especially its men— about creating an emotionally and sexually safe atmosphere on campus. 
“Rape happens because it’s part of our culture to have this set-up of male dominance,” said Annamarie Joosse, a Broene Counseling Center counselor and member of the Sexual Assault Prevention Team (SAPT). “It is still a norm in our society to belittle women and give power to men. We’re trying to address this in a broad cultural way, to come to understand what we’ve been taught and become free from that. We want to educate men to be free to respect women.” 
Featured Speaker, Keith Edwards 
The featured speaker for this year’s events is Keith Edwards, the director of student life at Macalester College and a specialist in engaging men about their role in reducing sexual violence. Edwards will speak in several sessions on the role of various members of the college community in disassembling on-campus “rape culture” and promoting healthy relationships.
Faculty Lunch and Learn 
The first event is Faculty Lunch and Learn, which happens Monday, April 7 from 12:30 through 1:30 p.m. in the Alumni Association Board Room. In this session, co-sponsored with the provost’s office, Edwards will engage with faculty about their role in preventing sexual assault on campus.
As both teachers and mentors, faculty have two powerful means to help reduce on-campus sexual violence, said Jossee: “In the classroom, they can nudge students to be more discerning of our culture when it comes to the myths that allow rape to continue,” she said. “And when a student comes to a faculty member and talks about sexual assault, they can be educated about the resources in this community for dealing with the situation.” Free lunch tickets are available for faculty who pre-register for this event.
Confrontational Topic 
Also on Monday at 7:45 in the Calvin chapel, Edwards will speak on the topic “She Fears You.” The topic is confrontational, Joosse admitted, but important to understanding the element of coercion present in many dating relationships. “We need to get away from the idea that this is someone jumping out of the bushes or a dark alley with a knife. This is about acquaintance rape,” she said. (Edwards will also address these subjects in a special session for Calvin men athletes.)
Break the Silence 
From April 1 through 10, the Break the Silence Campaign will give sexual assault victims and their loved ones the opportunity to create a t-shirt to raise awareness of the issue. (Participants can decorate the shirts 9 a.m.–1:30 p.m. April 2 and 9 in the Student Life Conference Room, from 5–8 p.m., April 1, 2 and 8 and 2 p.m.–8 p.m., April 3, 4, 7, 9 and 10 in the Meditation Chapel.) The shirts will be displayed on a clothesline on the Commons Lawn from April 9 through 11. Break the Silence is modeled on a similar event last year, with one important difference, said Joosse: “This year, we’re making it clear that men are also survivors and are welcome to make a shirt, and we have child-sized shirts available for those who may have been abused as children.”
The final Sexual Assault Awareness Week event, a prayer vigil, to be held at 10 p.m., April 9 on the Commons Lawn, will also be attended by change. Though traditionally, this vigil is observed as a moment of silence for victims of sexual abuse, this year SAPT wants to break the silence in prayer as well. “We want it to be a moment of support victims of sexual assault and sexual abuse,” said Joosse. 
For more information on Sexual Assault Awareness Week, visit www.calvin.edu/admin/broene/sexualassault/saam.html