Denim Day - April 25, 2018
by Michelle Saport |
Dear UAA Community,
April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Action Month. UAA leadership is committed to addressing the issues and impacts that surround sexual assault and sexual misconduct. We sponsor and support events throughout this month across our campus communities, including Denim Day on April 25. Please join me in wearing denim on this date as we collectively make a stand against sexual misconduct and violence in our communities, in our state and in our world.
Events like these exist because individuals and institutions have failed to address sexual assault, misconduct and harassment in our society, particularly in Alaska. Our participation reinforces our desire as a university community to disrupt these abhorrent cycles of sexual assault and misconduct.
At universities, however, these behaviors are all too pervasive. Author Karen Kelsky wrote the following in January 2018: "Sexual harassment in academe is a spectrum that ranges from rape, assault, battery, and stalking to looks, hand-brushing, and innuendo delivered just on the edge of plausible deniability - but, ... all of those behaviors do incalculable harm."
Though we solve a great many complex problems at universities every day, the insidious, destructive problem of sexual harassment is one that we have not cracked. Regardless, making UAA campuses safe for all students, faculty and staff has been and remains a top priority of UAA leadership.
Our commitment doesn't end at the end of April. It is obvious that we need to look at this problem differently and deeply.
We must acknowledge our past while we make the changes we need in the present to ensure safer campuses and communities tomorrow. To that end, we are embarking on a review of our institution's history with sexual assault, harassment and misconduct. This is necessary for us to understand our actions to date and the impacts of those actions as we handled prior incidents. There are moments in that history some would say we ought to forget, but the truth is that we cannot ensure we are creating a supportive campus culture unless we fully understand and give voice to the mistakes of our past.
Denim Day is just one step. As with #MeToo, you are encouraged to speak up about incidents of sexual assault and misconduct.
Sincerely, Samuel B. Gingerich UAA Interim Chancellor
"Denim Day - April 25, 2018" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.