No means no
Senior Sylvia Passantino begins the battle on violence against women
Lori Haley
The Pendulum
Eton’s first hugely successful Rq» Awareness Week
Was made possible by the newly formed campus group
One in Three. Senior Sylvia Passantino helped found the
STOup and spoke to The Pendulum about the organization
and the recent events to raise campus consciousness on the
subject of rape.
Pendulum: How did you come up with the idea for
the One in Three organization?
Passantino: In a women’s studies group in the
fall with Professor Larson, we were discussing the fact
^at there is nothing on campus that deals with rape
awareness.
Pendulum: How did you get it started?
Passantino: I went to Rape Crisis and talked with
the director, Brenda Gum, and we decided to set up a
Gaining session. Usually they have a 30-hour training
Program, and they do it every Tuesday and Thursday for
two months.
We decided to do one and gear it towards the students,
•ike a crash course, and do a Friday, Saturday, Sunday
"'eekend for six hours a day for students. Students are
*^tter off to do something like that than every Tuesday
Thursday. Brenda worked with me, and we got
together 22 students.
Pendulum: How difficult was it to actually get it
staited?
Passantino: It was very easy because I took
Psychology and Women’s Studies classes and went
trough Rape Crisis training.
Also, John Barnhill really helped me out. He made
excited about it and led me into all the directions I
■deeded. Barbara Plumblee, who is a computer science
P^'ofessor, is the group’s advisor and has been a lot of help
"'Uh getting the group started. The professors also helped
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Does the group work with Rape
Sylvia Passantino
with funding the organization because we have no money
right now.
Pendulum: What does the group hope to
accomplish?
Passantino: We’re trying to get recognition from
the school. I’ve written a constitution, but it hasn’t been
corrected yet. It s almost ready to go, and we are trying to
get SGA funding.
Another goal we have is to make Rape Awareness
Week and the Take Back the Night march annual events.
We are also trying to do role plays with sororities and
fraternities and maybe Residence Hall Association.
Pendulum: How are you planning to continue
with the group next year?
Passantino: I’m graduating, but we had training
for new members this past Sunday. We decided to
condense the training to six hours because a lot of the
training we did was counseling. We teach members
empathy towards victims. We also want to teach new
members how to do role plays.
Pendulum;
Crisis?
Passantino: Yes, we do. We do all of our
counseling through Rape Crisis.
Pendulum: Does the group have weekly meetings?
Passantino: Yes, we try. During the month
before Rape Awareness week, we tried to have weekly
meetings and sometimes more than that. We’ve spent
most of our time preparing for Rape Awareness Week.
Since the group is new, we haven’t had other meetings,
but we are trying to continue with the weekly meetings.
Pendulum: How did you get the idea for the Take
Back the Night march?
Passantino: I got the idea from Duke University.
Brenda Gum and I went to talk with the Duke University
Rape Awareness group. We got ideas for role plays, and
they invited us up there for their march. Ten of us went
and participated. It was incredible.
Pendulum: How did you feel about the march
here?
Passantino: I thought it was incredible. It was
completely successful. We expected about 300 people and
had almost 600 show up.
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