USG sponsors Violence Intervention and Prevention week

The USG is sponsoring aViolence Intervention and Prevention week dedicated to educating students about issues related tosexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking.

Students this week will have the opportunity to attend lectures, study breaks, performances and discussions that deal with topics ofpower-based personal violence.

The USG collaborated with Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources & Education, the residential colleges’ directors of student life and the Women’s Center to create the initiative.

USG president Shawon Jackson ’15, who proposed the project, said that the idea came to him at a meeting in which several officers were discussing the USG promotion of an upcoming lecture by sexual assault expert David Lisak. Inspired by the success of past USG Mental Health Weeks, Jackson suggested a weeklong campaign to raise awareness about power-based personal violence, he said.

U-Councilor and SHARE peer Mallory Banks ’16 said the campaign aims to help students realize that some of their campus experiences are connected to SHARE-related issues.

“For example, you’re on the Street and somebody does something that makes you vaguely uncomfortable, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s just how things are,’ ” she said. “Whereas actually, that’s something to talk about, and I feel like people don’t really conceptualize things in that way, and I think VIP week is a great way to sort of raise awareness on not just these issues ... but in your personal everyday life.”

Banks is a former staff writer for the Street section of The Daily Princetonian.

Former USG Campus and Community Affairs chair Trap Yates ’14, who took responsibility for coordinating the project as part of the planning committee, noted that certain events in the programming were difficult to organize.

“We wanted to have, as much as possible, a diversity of different types of things happening, and also, if at all possible, to represent perspectives and ideas and voices that are not always associated with violence, and especially sexual violence,” he said.

Robert Basile ’15 said he and many other football players planned to attend the lecture on redefining masculinity on Monday night as a team, adding that the event will address a huge problem across all college campuses.

“Lack of knowledge makes the week imperative, but with these kinds of issues, it’s imperative nonetheless,” he said. “I’m sure we’ll get a lot out of it.”

However, Priscilla Yeung ’17 said she does not plan to participate in VIP week.

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“The fact that I wouldn’t make the time to go is more about my lack of interest in it as opposed to me being busy with school,” she explained. “I guess that I’ve been really lucky or really sheltered and haven’t really seen much of it, or experienced much of it, so at the same time I don’t feel that very personal compulsion to do more of this kind of stuff.”

Yeung said she might be more interested in a more hands-on or practical event related to power-based personal violence, such as a self-defense course.

Both Yates and Banks said they would measure the success of VIP Week by means other than the number of students who attend events. Banks said her main goal is to generate discussion about power-based personal violence.

“If somebody in a week’s time goes, ‘Hey, I was at one of your events, and this came up, and I just want to have someone to talk to about it,’ the fact that they were at that event, and they feel comfortable enough to come to a SHARE peer, or even a USG member who can refer them to the SHARE office, is major,” Banks said.

The USG does not plan to host future events on power-based personal violence because its members are not trained to do so, Jackson noted.

“The thing that I think we’ll be able to do best is publicize events around power-based personal violence that other offices may be putting on,” he said.

Activist Tony Porter gave a lecture Monday evening called “Redefining Masculinity” in McCosh 10, and SHARE will be hosting a ice cream study break about stalking in Campus Club at 9 p.m. on Tuesday. Slam poet Pages Matam will perform his original poems about sexual violence at 9 p.m. in Café Vivian on Wednesday, and director of connectNYC Sally MacNichol will discuss the role of faith communities in helping victims of violence in the Frist 1952 Room at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.