Rape Awareness Week focus is wider in wake of Sept. 11 terrorist attacks

Rape Awareness Week focus is wider in wake of Sept. 11 terrorist attacksSeptember 29, 2001Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Coming just three weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Rape Awareness Week focuses this year not just on individual acts of violence, but on the connection between rape and events in the larger world. “Rape is often a product of world events,” says SU R.A.P.E. Center Director Dolores Card. “It can be used as a weapon of control and retaliation, and to evoke the breakdown of societal mores. In this sense, rape has devastating effects not only on individual victims, but on their society.”

Several events are planned by the University R.A.P.E. Center to mark Rape Awareness Week, Oct. 1 to 5. They include:

? The R.A.P.E. Center will staff information tables in Schine Student Center, Link Hall and Goldstein Student Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 1 to 5. T-shirts painted by survivors will be on display at the tables.

? Survivors of rape, sexual assault, incest and other forms of violence may paint T-shirts at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages. The T-shirts will be displayed at Schine Student Center and on the Quad. Shirts and paints will be provided.

? Students may paint messages opposing violence against women on banners at 7 p.m. Oct. 3 in 238 Link Hall. A prize will be awarded for the most outstanding banner. The banners will be carried in a men’s march on Oct. 5.

? Phil Benedict of Physical Plant will lead a self-defense class at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 in the first exercise room at Archbold Gymnasium.

? All men of the university community are invited to take part in a march to protest violence against women at 5 p.m. Oct. 5. Marchers will gather on the steps at Hendricks Chapel and march to Schine Student Center. The event is sponsored by the InterFraternity Council.