This weekend, the Women’s Caucus attempted to bring the issue of domestic violence and sexual assault to the forefront by taking part in The Clothesline Project.
The project, which was started in Massachusetts, is now an annual nationwide event.
“Many people know that roughly 58,000 soldiers died in the Vietnam War, far fewer realize that 51,000 women were killed in those same years by men who supposedly loved them,” junior Lucia Spinelli said. “Those women died at the hands of the lovers or husbands or boyfriends and this is their memorial.”
To commemorate the women, t-shirts were made describing sexual assault and violence. The t-shirt designers were those who suffered abuse or knew someone who had. The shirts were then hung across Wilson Commons where people passing by could read them.
The event was meant to raise awareness about the continuing problem of domestic violence.
“Domestic violence is still an issue and it still needs to be addressed,” Spinelli said. “People don’t realize it happens to people they know. A lot of people think of it as an older issue that is sort of dying out with time. People think that it’s not happening as much as it used to.”
The project evoked intense emotions from onlookers. “It was a really moving display,” freshman Rachel Shapiro said. “It is a really important cause and everyone who saw it was deeply effected.”
Although the Clothesline Project was truncated this year, the t-shirts only being hung for three days, the event was still considered a success.
“We received a lot of really positive responses, it really made people reflect on what it means to be sexually assaulted and realize that it’s not a non-issue,” Spinelli said.UR teams place at inter-college debate competition“The UR Debate Union sent nine teams to the Bard College Debate Tournament in late January to compete at the Varsity, Junior Varsity and Novice levels against other colleges. Four UR teams were declared champions of their divisions, while one earned second place.
A UR Novice team composed of freshmen Brittany Carter and Jason Gershowitz fought their way to the divisional final, losing by a split decision to champion Cornell University.
Four Junior Varsity teams achieved in their division after being seeded first, second, third and fifth initially.
After winning their quarterfinal matches, these teams were all declared to be co-chapions.
Other UR teams performed well at the competition, but none placed within their divisons. Still, the debate union looks forward to future matches.
“This was a very positive start,” Director of Debate Ken Johnson said. “I’m taking some time to celebrate.”
The UR teams intend to compete in more tournaments this year, starting with a Varsity competition at the University of Texas-Austin this weekend.
The next weekend, the teams will compete at Binghamton University in an annual matchup.
Also traveling with the team are coaching students Eric Miller, Vlad Vanukov and Ben Lin. These students are critical to the team’s success.
“It’s these students that show what great team spirit we have at UR,” Johnson said.Reporting by Bonnie Jarrett and Matt Majarian.
