The BEacon
Vol. 117, Issue 4 September 18, 2014
Every Thursday
The Student Voice of the University of Portland Since 1935
EDITORIAL: What happens to sexual assault survivors at UP? Opinions, p. 11
Meet Villa Maria Hall: the latest of our viceo series youtube.com/upbeaconvideo
Joe Gifford competes in world ‘s rock climbing competition Sports, p. 16
Green Dot equips students to fight sexual assault Maggie Hannon hannon15@up.edu President Barack Obama plans to announce the “It’s On Us” Friday, a campaign to encourage everyone on college campuses to prevent sexual assault, with an emphasis on recruiting male students to join the fight. The Green Dot program, which has been at UP for two years, has a similar aim. The organization teaches bystander intervention for the prevention of sexual assault and other forms of power-based violence. Senior Derek Boggs, a senior soccer player, underwent the Green Dot training with most of his team. He said the soccer teams are big advocates for the program. One of the main things he learned at the training, Boggs said, was when to step in on a situation. “You see it all the time, and it’s something that before the training I could have seen as harmless,” Boggs said. “But now that I’ve talked about the scenarios and I’ve developed more of an awareness of what the
red dots look like I can help out and outnumber the red with some green.” Green Dot was commemorated at the men’s and women’s soccer games Sept. 12, where the players wore Green Dot warm-ups before the game. Green Dot’s involvement in the fight against sexual assault at UP comes as universities and organizations nationwide try to come up with solutions. For over a year, the federal government has been investigating over 70 universities nationwide. Recently, the California Legislature passed a “Yes Means Yes” standard for all colleges that receive state funding. This standard requires colleges to follow an affirmative consent guideline, meaning that there must be affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement from both parties before engaging in sexual activity. Green Dot held a training for students on Sept. 13. The training includes four aspects for students See Green Dot, page 4 Fotolia.com
Anti-abortion chalk messages spark anger and dialogue McKena Miyashiro miyashir17@up.edu Philip Ellefson ellefson15@up.edu
McKena Miyashiro | THE BEACON
Voice for Life, an anti-abortion club on campus, wrote chalk messages (above) around the academic quad and entrance to the Clark Library last Friday in order to spark a conversation about abortion on campus. Many students reacted negatively to the messages, including a group of pro-abortion rights students who wrote their own chalk messages (left).
Last Friday, the Voice for Life club wrote anti-abortion chalk messages on the sidewalk of the academic quad and the Clark Library entrance in an effort to start a conversation on abortion. Many students took offense to the messages. ASUP senator Joseph Rojo, a sophomore, brought the issue before the Senate meeting on Monday. He said he had received multiple complaints and overheard people reacting negatively to the messages. “They’re really guilt-shaming. Like the quote ‘Your mom chose life’ is an awful quote,” Rojo
said. “It’s really insensitive.” Others who took issue with the chalk statements used social media to voice their opposition. Freshman Ariel Haynes shared a Facebook message about the impact of Voice for Life’s messages. “The statements written in chalk all around the academic quad are accusatory, oversimplified and extremely triggering for any young women on campus who that might have either terminated a pregnancy or considered doing so in the past,” the post, which was shared 11 times, said. “This is not protest. This is not dialogue. This is obnoxious. Shame on you.” According to Julia Anderson, See Chalk, page 3