CONWAY, Ark. (March 29, 2011) – Hendrix College will host two programs on Saturday, April 2 to honor Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
First, the Clothesline Project will be on campus Saturday. This statewide project is sponsored by the Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence and presents shirts – displayed on a clothesline strung through the Pecan Court on campus – that personalize gender-based violence. The display is made by survivors of violence against women, including sexual assault and domestic violence. SEXplorations, a student organization, will sponsor a t-shirt making program on Friday evening. Students, staff, and faculty will be able to add their own shirts to the clothesline to either tell their own stories or those of women close to them.
There will also be a conference titled "Improving Our Responses to Campus Sexual Assault” from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. in the Campbell Dining Hall in the Student Life and Technology Center. The program will include presentations and workshops by staff, faculty, and students, as well as local experts for the campus community. A former student will tell her story of moving from a victim to a survivor of sexual assault to demonstrate the reality of this issue, which statistically affects approximately one in four college-age women.
Dr. Mary A. Wyandt-Hiebert, PhD, CHES, director of STAR Central Office of Health Promotion at the University of Arkansas, will be the featured guest speaker. Over the last 10 years, she has built a nationally recognized and award winning comprehensive campus sexual assault program, and she will offer insight into building such a program for the Hendrix community. Additionally, she will give a second presentation on bystander intervention to empower community members to take an active role in sexual assault prevention.
There will be free breakfast beginning at 9:30 a.m., as well as a free lunch and afternoon snacks.
The conference is made possible by Project Pericles, a national organization devoted to civic engagement programs, which awarded a faculty leadership grant to Dr. Lisa Leitz, assistant professor of sociology at Hendrix. Additional funding was provided by a special projects grant from Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning." The conference is organized by Dr. Leitz with the aid of Dr. Mary Anne Seibert, coordinator of counseling services at Hendrix, and a collection of student leaders, including Sarah Beth Bell, Ali Sanders, Sarah Spencer, Linh Chuong, and Sarah Poulton."
The conference is open to all members of the Hendrix (and Conway) community. For more information, contact Dr. Lisa Leitz at Leitz@hendrix.edu.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college is featured in the 2010 edition of the Princeton Review as one of the country’s best 371 colleges, was identified as the nation’s top “Up and Coming” liberal arts college for 2011 by U.S. News and World Report, and is ranked among 45 “Best Buy” colleges by the 2011 Fiske Guide to Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, visit www.hendrix.edu.