Students, faculty, and staff at WMed observed Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month in April as a way to ensure the creation of a healthy and diverse workplace and learning environment that recognizes the value of every individual and fosters safety, civility and respect.
Nationally, the Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month campaign is aimed at raising awareness about sexual assault and the prevention of violence.
“It’s important that we at WMed demonstrate we have a safe campus environment where everyone can work and learn free from discrimination based on sex or gender,” said Erin Dafoe, Director of Student Life and a deputy Title IX coordinator at the medical school.
The medical school policy “Sexual and Gender-Based Harassment and Violence, Intimate Partner Violence, and Stalking” prohibits sexual- and gender-based harassment and violence, intimate partner violence, and stalking by any member of the WMed community.
The medical school also has a Title IX team composed of Title IX Coordinator Shayne McGuire, Dafoe and Deputy Title IX Coordinator Erin Cook. Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972 is a federal law that prohibits sexual and gender-based discrimination in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial aid.
WMed’s Title IX team is charged with monitoring WMed’s compliance with Title IX, ensuring proper education and training for students and employees, coordinating the investigation, response and resolution of reports made under Title IX, and then ensuring that appropriate actions are taken to eliminate any prohibited conduct, preventing a recurrence and remedying the effects of such conduct.
On Wednesday, April 24, the medical school observed Denim Day as numerous students and employees wore jeans for the day. Denim Day is observed annually during the third week of April. It was born out of a case from the 1990s in which an Italian court found a man not guilty of rape after ruling that the alleged victim’s jeans were too tight and she would have had to take the jeans off, thereby providing consent. Since the initial demonstration, people around the world have protested the misconceptions surrounding sexual assault by wearing jeans on Denim Day during Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month.
Employees and students each gave at least a $1 donation to take part in Denim Day and the proceeds went to the Sexual Assault Program at YWCA Kalamazoo.