The University is holding a week-long series of nine lectures organized by student interns at the Women's Center's Sexual and Domestic Violence Services to raise awareness of domestic violence in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness month.
The series began Monday evening with a forum featuring Neil Irvin, executive director of Men Can Stop Rape.
As executive director of Men Can Stop Rape, an organization which aims to highlight the importance of male activism in resolving issues of domestic violence, Irvin "has a lot of credibility nationally," SDVS director Claire Kaplan said.
Irvin began his talk by establishing a dialogue about the culture of male violence toward women.
Emily Renda, second-year College student and student intern said in an email that the forum was effective.
"He did an amazing job of getting everyone present involved in the conversation, and focused really on the socialization and community beliefs and attitudes that promote a culture of masculinity that facilitates men's violence against women," she said.
Kaplan said she hopes Irvin's talk educated the male population at the University about their particular role in preventing domestic violence before it begins.
"Women can reduce our risk, but men ultimately are the one that have to end it," she said.
SDVS's efforts will continue with other forums.
"With some of our other talks, about race and domestic violence or sexuality and violence, we are trying to engage willing members of our community in understanding that all kinds of 'isms', not just sexism, are involved in sexual assault and domestic violence," Renda said. "Classism, ageism, racism, homophobia - all of these have a place in our thoughts about preventing this problem."
As part of the Domestic Violence Awareness Month, SDVS has also organized a red flag campaign in which it will fly flags to represent potentially harmful relationships, Kaplan said.
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