Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

My vision for my campus and community is one in which men from all communities mobilize against sexual and gender-based violence and fight for a new, healthier definition of masculinity. I envision men recognizing the ways they are hurt by a patriarchal, sexist, white-supremacist, heterosexist, ableist, classist (and more) society and, in turn, seek to use their privilege to ally with oppressed groups.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

My blueprint addresses the problems of sexual violence and gender-based violence at UIC and in the local community. More broadly, my Blueprint for Social Justice endorses a definition of masculinity that allows men to be loving, empathic, and vulnerable. In a 2002 National College Health Survey done at UIC, approximately 2,326 female UIC students experienced forms of sexual aggression ranging from verbal threats for sex to sexual assault. In addition, approximately 949 male UIC students experienced the same forms of sexual aggressions.

In a survey of 6,159 college students enrolled in 32 institutions found that 42% of sexual assault survivors told no one about their attack. More than 1 in 4 college-aged women are survivors of rape or attempted rape.* In a 2007 social norms survey, conducted by the Office of Women's Affairs, of the 1,869 UIC students interviewed, 42% of men said they use verbal pressure in order to engage in sexual activity. Of the 1,870 UIC students interviewed, 23.5% of men interviewed said they would ignore someone when they said "no" to sexual activity. These results clearly show a need for rape prevention education targeted towards men. Conversely, of the 1,873 UIC students interviewed 54% of men said they would make sure their partner wants to have sex with them before making sexual advances. In the same survey, of 1,812 UIC students interviewed, 37% of UIC men said they would intervene if they saw a man making sexual advances towards a person who was extremely drunk. These results demonstrate that anti-rape activism education would yield positive results; that men would like to know how to effectively intervene at the individual level but perhaps at a systemic level as well.

*Koss M.P., Hidden rape: sexual aggression and victimization in a national sample of students in higher education. In: Burgess A.W., ed Rape and Sexual Assault. New York, NY: Garland Publishing: 1988;2:3-25.

What communities will you work with?

• Campus community
• Local community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: Increase visibility of anti-violence messages target towards men at UIC
• Make two different styles of poster and button
• Distribute 500 buttons over the course of 2008-09 school year, distribute 100 posters over 2008-09 school year
• Poster and button campaign - put up posters in visible locations such as Student Center East, BSB, SSB, Residence Halls, and recreation center (among others)
• Goal 2: Build a community of men to do anti-sexism and anti-violence education at UIC
• At conference, take down a list of men who would be interested in doing education and outreach
• Have a meeting with those men in winter 08/09 about doing education and outreach for supplemental meeting in spring '09, see how many people show up
• Talking to at least five student org. leaders on West campus to see if they would be interested in being involved with MASV events
• Goal 3: Recruit someone to take over MASV when I leave
• Working with Office of Women's Affairs and Campus Advocacy Network to send potential leader to Rape Victim Advocates' 40-hour sexual assault training in order to get knowledge about cultural and legal effects of sexual assault.
• Meeting twice a month with student and Dr. Gordon (head of OWA) to talk about MASV goals and programs
• Have MASV meetings / social events once a month in order to discuss current events

What is your primary approach? Network and Alliance Building

Why did you choose this approach?

I chose this approach because male-perpetrated gender-based violence is a problem that extends beyond socio-economic barriers and affects everyone. While this is true for all other social problems, I feel sexual violence is particularly marginalized. I know it is marginalized because most rapes go unreported (especially among men) and we need to end the silence. I feel that by networking and building alliances with other groups on campus (and in the local community) we can help each other to assess the specific problems concerning masculinity and sexual violence in particular communities. For example, black masculinity is different from mainstream (IE white) masculinity, and thus black men have privilege as men but are oppressed for being black. Latino men have different experiences and cultural norms as well, as does any other oppressed group. In addition, identities intersect - no one is just a male, or just white, or just gay. As people, we are all products of our identities which are a combination of many different socio-economic factors. An alliance building and networking approach would help those who are very privileged (in many different ways), like myself, to understand oppression, power and privilege and how it is possible to use whatever privilege we have to ally with other communities. While I am aware that allying and alliance building is exceptionally difficult, I feel it is the only way to recognize and appropriately respond to the universal problem of sexual violence.

Did you have secondary approaches? What are they?

In addition to networking and alliance building, I will also take an approach toward leadership and capacity building. One of my key goals is to build a group of men to do anti-sexism and anti-violence education at UIC. The second day of the male ally conference is focused specifically around how to do education and outreach directed towards men. In addition, this helps to create a sustainable movement as my peers could continue to train future men (such as incoming freshman) about sexual violence. Ideally, this conference would be annual. Part of the reason for having a supplemental spring meeting is to get those men who show interest in doing education to help plan the male ally conference for fall 2009.

What will your tactics and activities be?

My tactics will be getting men from all communities to participate. I have already started doing this by aligning with professors and faculty from the African-American studies department, African-American Academic Network, Latino Cultural Center, Gender & Sexuality Center, and the Asian-American Resource and Cultural Center. We are also working with community groups like Center on Halsted, which works with members of the LGBT community, to help plan and present at our conference.

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

In order to take an active stand against a problem that is so ingrained in us as "normal," we must deconstruct the cause of the problem - in this case, hegemonic masculinity. The male ally conference serves as a forum for men to share their fears, worries and doubts as well as their excitement about being a male ally and being non-violent. By promoting the conference through a media campaign as well as mentoring and modeling, I will begin to create a community of non-violent men at UIC. After the conference, I will begin to build this community by collaborating with men who are interested in doing anti-sexism work and begin the process of sustaining MASV at UIC.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

For this approach, I mostly need financial support. The Office of Women's Affairs (OWA) has great connections with community and campus organizations so we already have connections established. We also already have connections to media support through the Chicago Flame, our student newspaper, however if we want to promote this city-wide we may will need media connections to other sources. We need funding to bring in keynotes and to pay for food on both days. OWA is the least funded of all cultural centers on campus, so our financial resources are limited.