Allison Anglim ’16
Members of the Siena College community filled the Maloney Great Room in the Sarazen Student Union with energy, joy and passion as they danced together in solidarity to support an initiative to end relationship violence. This movement, One Billion Rising, is led by women’s rights activists from around the world to globally protest violence against women and promote gender equality and justice.
The title of this movement is derived from the United Nations statistic that one in three women will be raped or beaten in her lifetime, which totals to one billion women. Siena has been participating in this movement since its inception, and each year Siena students, faculty, administrators and staff support the movement by attending the event and participating in Siena’s “I Rise” video. This video shows Siena community members participating in the movement by stating why they personally rise to end relationship violence. Click here to view the 2016 "I Rise" video.
“Every day we don’t realize that in so many ways, this is in our backyard. It is important and I just commend each of you…. I’m very proud of the sexual assault bill that we passed last year. We are trying to do more, but it’s not just about enforcement, it just really is about how we can make ourselves better” said Pat Fahey, NYS Assemblywoman. “The One Billion Rising is a powerful message. As we embrace this message and we understand more about the causes of violence, I would like to think that someday there will not be a need for this anymore.”
Time Warner Cable news anchor and journalist, Kate Welshofer served as the event’s master of ceremonies. She said, “It is the responsibility of all of us to rise and to be part of an effort to end violence. [It is] not [our job] to just react to it, but to proactively do away with it.”
The event featured performances from the College’s talented dance teams: Irish Step, the Women’s Dance Team and Bhangra. The student dancers also led the crowd in a dance to the One Billion Rising anthem, “Break the Chain” in support of this year’s campaign.
April Backus '12, associate director of Academic Community Engagement, said, “It is important for Siena to host One Billion Rising to demonstrate solidarity across the campus, throughout the greater Capital Region and globally. Students, administrators, staff and community member alike need to be aware of this staggering statistic and be ready to do something to change it and bring awareness to it.”
This year’s One Billion Rising was sponsored by:
-Anti Violence Task Force Committee
-Academic Community Engagement
-First Year Seminar
-Residence Hall Association
-Student Events Board
-Student Senate
-Commuter Student Association
-Inferno Pizza
-WVCR
-Times Union
-Women at Work
-Unity House
To see photos from the event, please visit the Siena College Flickr page.
