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September 26, 2013
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
Sexual assault awareness ‘vital’
William Aranda / Daily Lobo Xavier Winslow colors in one of 4,018 teardrops on a sheet at the RAINN Day tent near Zimmerman Library. The UNM Women’s Resource Center gathered under the tent to bring awareness of sexual assault on campus.
by Ardee Napolitano news@dailylobo.com @ArdeeTheJourno
Members of UNM’s Women’s Resource Center gathered in a tent at Smith Plaza Wednesday morning amid a crowd of homecoming king and queen wannabes. But WRC members were not there to ask for people’s votes. The center organized this year’s RAINN Day, which aims to raise awareness of the prevalence of sexual assault on campus. About 50 students dropped by the center’s tent during the event. Angela Catena, gendered violence program assistant of the WRC, said she organized the event in coordination with a national movement by the national organization Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network (RAINN). She said the center held the event in time for the “red zone.” “That is the point when sexual assaults on campus are most likely to happen,” she said. “We chose a day in the middle of the ‘red zone’ for a national awareness event.” This is the second year in which the resource center held the event on campus, Catena said. Catena said the event aims to continue the campus community’s concern with sexual assault at UNM, especially considering incidents that happened on campus in the spring semester. Two sexual assaults occurred on campus during the spring semester. The first was Jan. 27, when two men allegedly sexually battered a female student at Johnson Field under her clothes. The second assault happened Feb. 4, when a man allegedly sexually battered a female student over her clothes near Castetter Hall. According to a RAINN flyer distributed by the center in the event, one in six women and one in ten men will be sexually assaulted in their lifetimes. According to a WRC flyer handed at the event, this means 4,018 of UNM’s current students will experience sexual assault in their lifetime, of which 2,705 are women and 1,313 are men. But Catena said this is an
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indefinite number. “It’s a scary number, and people have to keep in mind that rape is the most underreported crime out there,” she said. “And so, this is a staggering number, and it can show…that it may still be a lot higher. People should know about it.” At the event, WRC members asked students to color raindrops on large sheets of paper with paint. There were 4,018 raindrops in the sheets, which aims to symbolize the number of UNM students who will experience sexual assaults in their lifetime. Other organizations also attended the event. Holly Spackman, prevention education coordinator with the Rape Crisis Center of Central New Mexico, said her organization attended the event in support of the WRC. She said the number of incidents that could happen on campus is horrible. “I think it’s devastating,” she said. “I think the fact that rape culture is so prevalent here in the United States and the fact that it’s not just here but in any campus are devastating. Something needs to be done about it.” Spackman said her organization offers victim support services, which are free of charge, to help sexual assault victims. She said her organization also travels to middle schools and high schools around the state “to work with them when they’re younger and try to talk to them about how to empower them about how to change their community.” Awareness is the key to prevention, Spackman said. “If people aren’t aware of it, if they’re going to bury their heads on the sand, then it’s easy to say, ‘Oh, sexual assault doesn’t occur. It doesn’t happen here, not in my backyard.’ So awareness is vital,” she said. Still, she said respect goes a long way. “If everyone were being respectful of people’s boundaries and of the person’s wishes, sexual assault wouldn’t be occurring,” she said. Catena said she applauds the University for launching the Sexual Assault Response Team this semester in
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thursday
INVIGORATING INVESTIGATIONS
Sergio Jiménez / Daily Lobo Assistant Chief Medical Investigator Michelle Aurelius simulates an autopsy on a dummy at the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator (OMI) on Wednesday evening. The OMI hosted a behind-the-scenes tour of the lab facility as part of homecoming week events. It is the second time the OMI has hosted such a tour where the visitors have been able to able to see and participate in medicolegal investigation demonstrations.
Men thriving through dance by Fiona-Maria Featherston culture@dailylobo.com @fmfeather
The testosterone will flow at this weekend’s UNM Friends of Dance Alumni concert. Though the cast of the performances is an even balance between men and women, each piece was choreographed by men alone. “Real Men Dance,” this year’s UNM Friends of Dance Alumni
concert, will feature seven male choreographers who have gone through or been affected by the UNM dance program in some way, said Kathy Anthony, co-president of UNM’s Friends of Dance. “We try to do a special theme every year. There is always an interest in men in dance and we are trying to highlight where the men have come from, as well as show that they can go in many different directions,” Anthony said.
Peter Bennett, one of the men contributing to the show, is a thirdyear graduate student in the dance program with a BFA in dance from Niagra University in Lewiston, N.Y.. The inspiration for his piece, titled “Close(t),” comes from those who have had to hide themselves from others, Bennett said. “(My piece) is set in the 1950s. It looks at a time where it wasn’t all right to be a homosexual male, and
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Rachel Toraño-Mark / Daily Lobo Exercise science senior Kaitlin Innis, left, and dance senior Kevin Clark jump into the air during a rehearsal for Real Men Dance at Carlisle Gym while Peter Bennett, the choreographer, watches them from the back seats. Bennett’s piece, “Close(t),” is a jazz dance that talks about the love of two men that have to hide their affair from their wives and society.
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