Week raises sexual assualt awareness

By ANN STACY
Reporter

Three campus groups aimed to bring awareness, education and hope to campus last week during Creighton’s first Sexual Assault & Rape Awareness Week.

Peer Education at Creighton, the Eileen B. Lieben Center for Women and the Department of Residence Life sponsored and organized the week, which included events such as the Clothesline Project and “Can I Kiss You?,” a talk by healthy dating and sexual assault expert Mike Domitrz.

PEAC also decorated the campus with teal awareness ribbons and distributed 1,200 ribbons to students to wear to show support for sexual assault victims and rape survivors.

It is the first year for PEAC’s Sexual Assault and Rape Awareness Team. Kendi Sears, Business junior and PEAC Sexual Assault and Rape Awareness team executive, said the addition of this team was a big step for PEAC and Creighton.

She also said the week was a good starting point, and that next year the team will know where to build and improve things.
Allison Taylor, director of the Lieben Center for Women, said the week was a good way to bring awareness to campus during the spring semester, just as Stop Intimate Violence Week brings awareness to campus in the fall semester.

“This is a consistent, prevalent issue,” Taylor said. “It isn’t an issue we should just bring out of the closet once a year and then forget about it.”

This was the second year the Lieben Center for Women partnered with the YWCA to bring the Clothesline Project to Creighton, Taylor said.

The Clothesline Project is a display of shirts that women from the Omaha community created to express experiences with acts of sexual assault, rape, incest, sexual abuse and battery.

Last year, the display was part of Stop Intimate Violence Week. This year, the display began outside in front of Swanson Hall, but because of bad weather, moved inside to the Kiewit Fitness Center.

Taylor said this wasn’t the ideal location, but the clothesline still caught many people’s attention.

Drawing a crowd of more than 300, Domitrz also attracted many people when he spoke April 3.

Domitrz, whose sister is a rape survivor, included humor and audience participation in his talk, which emphasized the importance of communication and dialogue in relationships and dating.

He encouraged audience members to give their partners a choice of whether they want to participate in intimate acts and said the only way to do that is to ask. Domitrz said his inspiration comes from sexual assault survivors and encouraged the audience to tell their friends and family members that they are there to support them if they ever experience sexual assault.

Sears said she was pleased with the “Can I Kiss You?” event and Creighton’s response to it.

“[Domitrz] is a great speaker because he speaks to the Jesuit values,” she said. “I think it says a lot about Creighton students that so many attended.”

Taylor said all of the week’s events were successful.

“We hope [the week] gave people who have experienced acts of violence messages of hope, or helped them heal a little,” she said.

Sears said she encourages students, faculty and staff to watch for the week next year.