Ongoing program tackles thorny social issues

Denisha+Arsenault+and+Brandon+Allaire

Patrick Bell

Denisha Arsenault and Brandon Allaire

This month at JSC, a series of events will focus on men’s health awareness as part of ongoing fall program focusing on sexual consent, domestic violence and men’s health issues .

Run by Denisha Arsenault, graduate assistant hall advisor of Governors dorm, and Michelle Whitmore, associate dean of students and Title IX coordinator, the programming is designed to stimulate both discussion and awareness of important social issues.

Arsenault and Whitmore are sponsoring an open mic night on Nov.29 to discuss men’s health. On top of that, they are advocating for “No Shave November,” in which men grow facial hair for the entire month without shaving to show awareness of men’s health.

Arsenault wants men to be a part of the conversation when it comes to talking about personal health.
“Men are usually left out of the conversation when we talk about abusive relationships or sexual assault and I wanted to make sure that they were included,” Arsenault said. “Right now, there is a floating poster board and it says ‘Men’s Health’ and ‘ Top 10’ and there’s 10 things that men specifically suffer from. It also talks about a stat that one in six men will be or have been in abusive relationships or sexually assaulted, and so I had put research on that specific stat and what it tells us. What it basically tells us is that it is under reported, that men don’t feel comfortable talking about it. Given all that information, the board will be in different offices and buildings throughout campus. At the end of November, having an open mic night specifically for the celebration of men and just to raise awareness that men need to be a part of this conversation also. I want it to be a fun night and we are having some slam poetry and that will also raise awareness”

The purpose of this focus on men’s health is necessary, according to Whitmore, who notes that most of the awareness programming this fall has focused primarily on female students.

“I hope that these events take off because we have done a lot of work with our female population and we need to do the same with our male population,” she said. “Sometimes that doesn’t happen and it needs to be a shared responsibility. No Shave November and the open mic night hopefully brings that awareness together.”

The series began in September with a community conversation raising awareness for the need for consent during sexual intercourse.

“That was the whole month of September and [that discussed] various ways of promoting active consent and educating on what consent is,” Whitmore said. “[Explaining] how do you ask for consent, how do you receive it, and what to do if consent is broken.”

In October, programming shifted to issues of domestic violence, and as part of that focus, . Arsenault’s provided information for survivors of abuse.

“I did a banner for survivors to know what places were safe for them to utilize on campus,” Arsenault said. “There are a bunch of purple ribbons of people’s names. They wrote their name or their office and it’s to show survivors a safe place to go and talk to. And not necessary for them to tell that person their story or that they are even in an abusive relationship, it’s just an environment that they know that they feel safe. There won’t be any abusive language or judgement or anything like that.”

This banner is going to be traveling throughout campus for the next several weeks, with each building on campus displaying it, so that awareness continues to grow and spread to everyone who attends JSC.

Both Arsenault and Whitmore hope to continue this awareness initiative, leading to greater understanding by sufferers of sexual and domestic abuse that they are not alone.