Ribbons Symbolize Awareness

Students from the Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (OSAPR), the peer support hotline RESPONSE, and other peer counseling groups knocked on the doors of upperclassmen Houses yesterday to ask residents to hang a purple ribbon in observance of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

The initiative, dubbed the “Purple Door Campaign,” aims to educate students on domestic and dating violence, and to motivate them to promote healthy relationships, according to the campaign’s organizers.

“The idea is to make a very visible united statement on campus,” Director of OSAPR Sarah A. Rankin said.

In addition to hanging up ribbons, volunteers talked to students and distributed information about safe relationships that included resources for dealing with and helping others face domestic or dating violence.

“People who answered their doors were really supportive,” said Genevieve A. Lim ’12, an OSAPR volunteer and co-coordinator of the Purple Door Campaign. “A bunch of guys even said, ‘Who would say no to that?’”

Rankin said that students were similarly receptive when the initiative first began last year, adding that they appreciated the time-intensive task of bringing information to their doors.

“When students are doing the knocking and talking, that’s very powerful—much more than if it were OSAPR staff,” Rankin said. She added that students don’t always think of domestic and relationship violence as falling in the same realm as sexual assault, and that OSAPR faces a challenge with the words “sexual assault” in its title.

“Because that’s what we’re called, sexual assault is the majority of what we see,” she said. “But it’s also a place for students who have concerns about abusive relationships or being harassed or stalked by a person after a breakup, which are not uncommon on college campuses, including Harvard.”

Shannon E. Cleary ’12, a member of the OSAPR Alliance and the Purple Door Campaign’s other co-coordinator, echoed the idea that students often think of domestic violence as something irrelevant to life in college.

“When people hear the words ‘domestic violence,’ they often think of adults or people outside of college,” she said, adding that domestic violence encompasses dating violence as well as emotional and physical forms of harassment.

“It does happen on our campus, and it’s something people should be aware of for themselves and for their friends to make sure people are healthy and happy,” Cleary said.

Students are also recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month with a display in front of the Science Center this week, which will include a large canvas painted with the words, “These Hands are Not for Hurting,” as well as space for passersby to trace their hands and write positive messages.

“The slogan seems like it should be something really simple, like you learned in kindergarten,” Cleary said. “But that lesson of ‘don’t hit’ is so simple that seeing it spelled out really makes you stop and think.”

—Staff writer Alice E.M. Underwood can be reached at aeunderw@fas.harvard.edu.