Campus Engagement

Campus Engagement

Date: April 16, 2012

UCF Event: Taking Up Space: "Taking Up Space: Middle School Girls' Responses to (Cyber) Bullying"

                This week for Campus Engagement I attended a presentation on the research project "Taking Up Space: Middle School Girls Responses to (Cyber) Bullying".  The presentation talked about the national trends on harassment and bullying in schools as it applies to middle school girls.  When I first heard about the opportunity to attend this presentation I thought it would be a great opportunity to learn about the information as it pertains to both this class and my major, Elementary Education.  Cyber Bullying has become a nationally recognized issues in schools more specifically at the middle and high school level.  Bullying has always been a problem among school age children but it has never gotten to the extreme that it is now.  With the development of social media and technology and how much it is used by school aged children there are far more methods for students to communicate with one another.  This also means that students also have more means to harass one another, social media nad electronic communication are monitored far less by both parents and administrators than actual conversation occurring in the classroom.  With issue making national headlines the Woman’s Studies Department at UCF decided to focus their research on it. 

                The presenter first introduced the presentation by speaking about the media and how movies and television portray bullying and harassment among girls in school.  After she showed up to video segments she explained that the messages being given to us by the mass media need to be looked at and that popular media has a major impact on our society.  I strongly agree with this statement, I think that it is important to see that we don’t live in a bubble and that as aggravating as the media can be at times it does have an overwhelming impact on our society especially young people and shouldn’t be ignored.   Then we got into the research that has been done and the findings.  I found it very interesting when we were shown the girls attitudes as they were measured in the pre-survey and how the local trends compare to those nationally.  When the presenter was sharing these findings with us she made sure to include the definitions of bullying and harassment as they were defined for the project and as they are defined by the school board and the law.  I knew that bullying was being taken seriously in schools but I was surprised to learn that if a child reports that they have been bullied that legal action can be taken.  Unfortunately we learned that in many instances parents feel that even when the instances are reported to the staff and administrators very little action is taken.  Overall I enjoyed the presentation and I felt that it was made to be very interested when sometimes presentations of research projects can be often dry.

Word Count: 474

Activism Log 2

Activism Log 2

Week 4/1/2012

1.       Activism

This week my project partner Sarah and I spoke during a Panhellenic Council meeting, on Wednesday the 4^th, about our projects and the opportunities available to each chapter through UCF Victim Services.  Prior to speaking we received very positive feedback about our proposal from both the Officer of Community Service and the Panhellenic President.  Both women were very excited to have us present our idea and super encouraging.  When we spoke in Pan about the speaking opportunities available to each chapter and our Underawareness drive we handed out flyers to each Panhellenic Delegate to take back to their chapters.  We made the flyers on Tuesday the 3^rd, the flyers were a picture of an undershirt and a pair of underwear with the due dates for the Underawareness drive along with the sizes and styles needed.  In  addition we put both of our contact information and encouraged them to share this information during their report in their chapter meetings.  The pitfall was that many chapters have their calendars booked a semester in advance or at the latest the first month into the semester, this being said many chapters were already so over programmed that they found it difficult to find the time to focus on what we were doing and the opportunities being presented. Next week hopefully we will have a strong response and a lot of woman will have brought in underwear to donate.

2.       Reflection

The readings for this week were “Violence Against Women”, “Radical Pleasure”, and “I Am Not a Rapist”

These readings relate directly to what we are doing with our service learning project this week.  This week we are advertising and making the woman of Panhellenic aware for our Underawareness drive and how it will benefit the community. The Underawareness drive collects underwear for victims of sexual assault who have chosen to report the assault.  This ties directly to these readings because they were about violence against woman and how it is fueled by society and how in many instances the victims were blamed.  Something that stood out most to me from our readings was this line referring to woman and their experiences with domestic violence.  It reads, “Most women […] a certain amount of what could be defined as sexual violence as part of daily life.  We experience hassles on the street, in parks, on public transit, or in cafes and bars. We put up with sexists comments from bosses or coworkers.  We sometimes make compromises as part of maintain intimate relationships” (p. 257)

3.       Reciprocity

What we have done this week has made me realize the importance of helping out your community.  Without donations from the community these centers wouldn’t be able to provide these victims with clean clothing to go home with.  In many instances victims are often blamed for the acts of violence and assault that have occurred against them, by provided these centers with donations we are supporting these victims in their time of need. 

Activism Log 1

Activism Log 1

Week of 3/25/2012

1.       Activism:

This week things really got underway with our service learning project.  It had been taking a while to hear back from the Panhellenic Council but after being contacted by Panhellenic’s Officer of Community Service we were able to move forward in contacting the Panhellenic sororities on campus.  Sarah, my partner in the project, and I emailed all of the chapter president’s explaining to them our project and the opportunities we were trying to make available.  We explained that we would like to create an open line of communication between Panhellenic and Victims Services.  This will create ample opportunities to present useful information to their chapters and open the floor for discussion on important issues relevant to their lives and the lives of their sisters.  In addition we informed them about the Underawarenss drive we are having.  We also emailed our contact at Victim Services to update her on our progress. The pitfall was that it has proven to be more than difficult to be the middleman between so many organizations.  It takes time for each party to get back to us and then for us to get back to them as well.  This is something we didn’t really anticipate.

                On Saturday we volunteered with Victim Services at the Vagina Monologues.  I didn’t know what to expect and wasn’t entirely too sure what the show was about.  Sarah and I were ushers for the event and it was overwhelming to see the positive response from viewers and the number of students, staff, and members of the community who came to see the event. We were able to watch some of the show and I found it to be very interesting.  The pitfall was that I felt there was a lot of time that we were there that was wasted.  When we got there no one knew exactly what we were supposed to do and we were given a break upon arriving.  However once the event began to get underway and guests started arriving we found a job and are time was better spent.

                Next week we will need speak at a Pan meeting or some other Panhellenic function to advertise our Underawareness drive and the speaking opportunities available.

2.       Reflection:

The issues presented in the Vagina Monologues tie directly with the issues being talked about in the class.  On monologue that stood out to me in particularly as relating to this week’s readings was the monologue about hair.  The woman speaking was talking about how uncomfortable, painful, and time consuming shaving, waxing, and other methods of hair removal are.  She explained that this became such an issue in her marriage that it came up in therapy and her therapists suggested that she compromise with her husband and continue to keep her vagina hairless. This stuck out to me because we are reading how woman are constantly asked to compromise when in reality this isn’t a compromise at all.

3.       Reciprocity

This week was a growing experience for me.  The Vagina Monologues is not something that I would’ve attended on my own.  The language, screaming, and topics of conversation made me uncomfortable and isn’t something I would particularly enjoy attending.  However by attending I was able to be opened to conversations that I wouldn’t normally participate in.  It allowed me to see issues at hand that are affecting a large majority of woman and to see these issues in a sense through the eyes of the woman experiencing them.