Much more than a bench has been left in Katy Benoit”s legacy.
The fourth annual Campus Safety Week begins Monday and will host speakers, informational fairs and trainings throughout the week all in the name of making University of Idaho students safer.
The week is dedicated to Benoit, a UI graduate student, who was shot and killed by her professor in 2011.
The week is dedicated to safety awareness and was specifically instituted to prevent a tragedy like Benoit”s from ever happening to another student or teacher again, said Virginia Solan, Coordinator of Violence Prevention Programs at UI.
She said she considers it her responsibility to sponsor the event every year in Benoit”s memory. Safety Week provides these events in an effort to make UI students more capable of handling dangerous situations they may encounter, Solan said.
The theme of the week will center around the university”s “I Got Your Back” campaign, which encourages students to look out for one another.
“This is who we are,” Solan said of the university. “It”s a culture of caring.”
UI has hosted Safety Week annually since 2012, a year after Benoit”s death. This year will feature a healthy relationships fair, alcohol awareness campaigns, suicide prevention training and “Take Back the Night,” an event the Women”s Center at UI has hosted for years even before safety week began.
The event aims to make the community”s strong stance against any forms of violence clear, and will include a rally, candlelit march and an open mic. Solan said the turnout in past years has been powerful.
Solan
The week includes many more events and ends with a screening of the “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about rape on college campuses.
Solan said other universities have tried to stop the film from being shown because it makes the case that institutions can play a role in “revictimizing” victims.
But Solan said that”s exactly why the film needs to be shown, in order to ensure that students and administrators are holding their institutions accountable. A forum will be held after the screening to discuss.
Of all the things she wishes students would consider for their safety, Solan said it”s their own intuition that will save them.
Solan said she has worked with many students, male and female, who have felt like a situation was wrong, but felt peer pressure to go along anyway.
“I wish that students would listen to their gut,” Solan said. “Don”t worry about making somebody else uncomfortable. You”ve got to follow your gut instincts.”
For a complete schedule of Campus Safety Week events, click here.
Taylor Nadauld can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @tnadauldarg