On April 29, in the sunny, early hours of the evening, an audience of mostly men sat scattered on the seats in silence at the EMU Amphitheater. Local members of the community spoke about how male-identifying persons can be a part of sexual violence prevention, an issue that continues to grip the campus community.

“We are gathered here because on our campus, in our community, in our nation and on our planet, there exists this systemic social problem. And that is the existence of the culture and patriarchy that condones sexual violence.” Director of the ASUO Men’s Center, Aaron Porter, said.

The event was jointly organized by the Men’s Center and Mackenzie River Men’s Center. The speakers consisted of various local experts consisting of ASUO Women’s Center Director, Erin McGladrey; Director of Center for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect, Phyllis Barkhurst; Director of Lane County 90 by 30 initiative and Parenting Group Facilitator and Drug and Alcohol Counselor, Jake Spavins, among others.

Also speaking at the event were the Dean of Students Paul Shang and University of Oregon interim president Scott Coltrane.

Many speakers conveyed how violence against women is a complex issue influenced by social norms. Coltrane mentioned his work as a sociologist and described a set of studies where he studied pop culture and history as it relates to masculinity, violence and relationships.

“Popular, movies, books, songs, perpetuate the myth of the strong, dominating man, who must control women and through jealousy, rage and physical aggression, supposedly expresses ‘love’… a terrible model,” Coltrane said. “We must reject the popular notion that dominance equals strength.”

Tensions between the student body and the administration appeared to have a slight undertone during the speeches.  Student Joaquin Ramos, ASUO state affairs commissioner, did not refrain from criticizing the administration during his speech.

“We are a university that sued a survivor of sexual assault, we are a university that fired someone who spoke out about this,” Ramos said. “We need to look at ourselves, change the culture here on our campus and not expect anyone else to do this.”

The event ended with a walk to Agate then back to the amphitheater with picket signs.

Walk, Talk, and Roll to Prevent Sexual Assault was held as part of the campus’ sexual assault awareness week and sexual assault awareness month.

“It’s awesome that this week is survivor focused, that’s important because the survivor of sexual assault is so badly marginalized,” said Ben Davies, assistant director of the Men’s Center, and a main organizer of the event alongside Porter. “But we also want to provide a space where men can come together in solidarity and speak out against the fact that we are perpetrating it (sexual assault), but we are trying to reverse the issue.”