Bulletin News
04/03/2018
Dating violence is a devastating problem in college communities around the world.
And around the world is exactly how far students from SUNY Cortland and 25 other State University of New York schools are willing to walk in the fight against it.
The College is again taking part in the One Love Foundation’s Around the World for Yeardley initiative. SUNY Cortland’s event will be held from noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 15 at the Stadium Complex. Lusk Field House will serve as the rain location.
On that day — an on similar event days at other SUNY campuses — students, faculty and staff are encouraged to walk, jog, run or wheel as many yards as they can, with the overall, combined goal of 50 million yards. That’s roughly equal to the circumference of the planet.
“It can turn into a competition,” said Amanda Lagan, senior psychology major from Levittown, N.Y. and student president of Students Active for Ending Rape (SAFER). “When does Cortland not make something a competition? But it’s the positive kind, for a good cause.”
Cortland totaled 5.4 million yards a year ago, trailing only SUNY Oswego’s 5.7 million yards among State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) campuses. This year, SUNY Cortland participants hope to walk 8 million yards, according to Nan Pasquarello, the College’s Title IX coordinator.
SUNY Cortland’s 2018 Yards for Yeardley planning committee includes representatives from the Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Athletics, Residence Life and Housing and the Student Government Association as well as the Title IX Office and SAFER.
Last year, the 10 SUNYAC campuses were the only SUNY participants in the national event, held each year in memory of Yeardley Love, a student and lacrosse player at the University of Virginia who was murdered by an ex-boyfriend in May 2010, just three weeks before she was due to graduate. They walked a total of 25.7 million yards.
This year, the effort expanded to include any SUNY school that wanted to help and the goal nearly doubled to 50 million yards. Organizers hope the increased participation will help raise widespread awareness about unhealthy relationships and dating violence and ultimately change the social climate surrounding the issue.
“SUNY “Yards for Yeardley” campus events are driven by our students, which is a testament to their commitment to end relationship abuse and protect their fellow students and people in their local communities,” said SUNY Chancellor Kristina M. Johnson. “On behalf of the SUNY family, I am pleased to support this program. My thanks to SUNY Cortland for the yards covered by students, faculty, staff, and the community.”
Dating violence is of particular significance within the SUNY System. Just last month, Haley Anderson, a Binghamton University nursing student, was found dead in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, a fellow student who has been arrested in connection with her murder.
SUNY Geneseo, meanwhile, is still mourning the loss of student-athletes Kelsey Annese and Matthew Hutchinson, who were killed by Annese’s ex-boyfriend, a former SUNY Geneseo student who then took his own life, in January, 2016. Alexandra Kogut, a SUNY Brockport swimmer, was murdered by her boyfriend in her dorm room in 2012.
“Dating violence is a serious issue that needs to be addressed,” Pasquarello said. “The College’s 2018 planning committee for Around the World for Yeardley is looking forward to welcoming students, employees and local alumni — in teams or as individuals — to help us raise awareness and top last year’s total.”
During the SUNY Cortland event, SAFER, the YWCA’s Aid to Victims of Violence, the University Police Department and Title IX Office will set up tables around the stadium track offering information about sexual assault and intimate partner violence prevention. The campus radio and television stations will be on site, and food and water will be provided. Free refillable Yards for Yeardley water bottles will be given to the first 500 registrants.
Yards for Yeardley was started in December 2014 by three students from the University of Virginia and Boston College women’s lacrosse teams. In 2017, the event was adopted by all 10 SUNYAC schools as well as by colleges and universities across the country.
For more information on the College’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month programming, contact Nan Pasquarello, Title IX coordinator, at 607-753-4550.
Prepared by Communications Office writing intern Ben Mayberry