Gallery promotes awareness of domestic violence in college

Male handprints covered the walls of the Kimbo Art Gallery in the William Pitt Union at last… Male handprints covered the walls of the Kimbo Art Gallery in the William Pitt Union at last night’s opening of the exhibit “These Hands Don’t Hurt.”

The University’s Sexual Assault Services sponsored the exhibit, which featured handprints and signatures of Pitt men who pledged to help end sexual assault and intimate partner violence.

“The goal of the exhibit is to encourage male students to take a more active role in the prevention of violence on the Pitt campus,” said Sexual Assault Services coordinator Mary Koch Ruiz. “Male students can be catalysts for change.”

Five fraternities had handprints on the walls: Delta Phi, Zeta Beta Tau, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Phi Delta Theta and Delta Tau Delta.

“It’s great the way they’re specifically working with fraternities,” Pitt sociology professor Lisa Brush said.

“We know that fraternities are targeted because of the way they organize masculine and feminine,” she said. “The institution reproduces men as predators and women as prey.”

Students of both genders trickled in and out during the gallery’s opening. Students in Brush’s Sociology and Gender course even received extra credit for attending.

“I think it should be something everyone on campus should pledge,” Pitt senior Karli Baumgardner said. “It’s great that sexual assault services is doing this because they’re not just there for after the fact, they’re also there for prevention.”

Many stopped to read the signs with statistics of sexual violence on campuses. For example, 60 percent of acquaintance rapes on college campuses occur in casual or steady dating relationships.

“I think it goes in that box of ‘bad things that happen’ and people don’t always talk about it,” senior Ed Dillon said.

“In going through peer training I’ve learned that women think campuses are safe,” said Sexual Assault Services intern Rachael Kraus. “But a lot of women are raped by people they know.”

The Dating Violence Resource Center said that 51 percent of college males admit perpetrating one or more sexual assault incidents during college. Thirteen percent of college women said they had been victims of stalking – 42 percent by former boyfriends.

“It’s interesting to see males get involved because this issue is usually only addressed from the female perspective,” Pitt junior Janeace Slifka said.

“These Hands Don’t Hurt” started in 2006 with the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity at the University of Alabama.

Pitt undergraduates Alexandra Schwall, Catherine Moran and Kraus brought the exhibit to Pitt as part of their internship with the Sexual Assault Services.

“These Hands Don’t Hurt” will run in the Kimbo Gallery until Nov. 17th. Students can find out about Pitt’s Sexual Assault Services at www.saserv.pitt.edu. It offers emergency medical, legal and police support to students experiencing sexual assault.