The Wisconsin Union is partnering with the University Health Services’ (UHS) Survivor Empowerment Fund to produce a limited-edition purple mini terrace chair commemorating Domestic Violence Awareness Month, according to an official Wisconsin Union press release.
Nearly one in 10 students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report experiencing “physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse by a dating partner in the past 12 months,” according to UHS.
Fifteen percent of all proceeds from the purple chairs will be donated directly to the Survivor Empowerment Fund, which provides emergency financial support to students impacted by intimate partner violence, sexual assault or stalking, according to Director of UHS Survivor Services Molly Caradonna. The organization expects to see around $2,000 in revenue, Caradonna said.
“[$2,000] would allow us to provide 10 survivors with home security systems, which is something that we do to help student survivors either obtain or uphold protective orders,” Caradonna told The Daily Cardinal. “That also could help us provide a student survivor with a security deposit to get to a safer living situation.”
In addition to raising money, Caradonna expects the purple chair initiative to help expand awareness about dating violence on the UW-Madison campus. Caradonna said UHS is also working towards this goal through an October-long “Purple Thursday” visibility campaign: placing purple ribbons and examples of “green flags” and “red flags,” indicating healthy and unhealthy relationship dynamics, on Bascom Hill each Thursday.
One of the Survivor Empowerment Fund’s main goals this year is to educate students on different kinds of domestic violence — including technology-enabled coercion and sexual abuse, particularly stalking and surveillance, which has been growing in recent years, Caradonna said.
“[Domestic violence] can look like physical violence, but it really looks like any dynamic of power and control in a relationship,” Caradonna said. “We're also seeing a significant increase in technology-facilitated abuse.”
Out of all students in partnered relationships on a university campus, 10.8% reported experiencing dating violence at some point, according to a 2019 Association of American Universities (AAU) Campus Climate Survey. For marginalized groups, such as disabled and queer students, the rate of domestic violence jumps to almost double that of their peers, at 17.1% and 17.3% respectively, the same survey found.
"It's something that impacts the health and wellbeing of our entire community, even those that haven't directly experienced violence themselves,” Caradonna said. “Our rates are on par with other universities, so it's not a UW-Madison-specific problem — it's a problem we have culturally with violence.”
