Photo courtesy Caitlin Agneta

By April Federico | Features Editor

The Women’s Collective meets every Monday at 5 p.m. in the brand new Gender and Sexuality Center to discuss social justice issues with a focus on sexual assault and domestic violence. Additionally, they plan events to raise awareness of sexual assault, creating equal opportunities regardless of race and gender, and promoting equality for everyone under Title IX.

Recently, the collective had the university’s Title IX Coordinator and Associate Dean & Director of the Gender & Sexuality Center Jen Stanley come in to talk about the recent change in guidelines under Title IX. Although the government took away some of these guidelines, Stanley assured the students that RWU students have nothing to worry about due to the university’s strong plan of action for incidents of sexual assault.

The collective just hosted a table in Commons for people to write on sticky notes about what the world would be like if there were no sexual assault. The purpose of this project is to create a “vision wall,” which the HAWEs also were a part of.

On Oct. 18, the collective will be hosting a “Break the Silence” vigil as part of the Silent Witness Initiative.

The Silent Witness Initiative is a national program that tells the stories of those who lost their lives to domestic violence. Along with the national Initiative, the RWU chapter sets up life-sized human cutouts, each of which bears the name and story of one of these victims.

“I think people need to be aware of the physical, psychological, and emotional consequences that sexual assault survivors may face after an incident,” said Women’s Collective president, Caitlin Agneta. “ Unfortunately, the only way violence will stop is if people stop being violent, which is hard to prevent completely.”

She continued, “That being said, Roger Williams has an abundance of resources for anyone in need and seems more prepared to handle Title IX issues than some other schools I have heard about.”