Striking Back at Relationship Violence

Seasoned faculty members like Mary Marcel are rarely a loss for words in their own classroom. But when a female student confided about being in an abusive relationship with a longtime boyfriend, the senior lecturer was caught off guard.

“Beyond providing emotional support, I wasn’t sure what I should do,” recalls Marcel, who teaches in the Experience Design Department.

A solution emerged through the anti-bullying initiative begun on campus last fall. After attending one event for that campaign, Marcel put out a call for those interested in addressing relationship violence on the Bentley campus — and got an immediate “yes” from a number of faculty, staff and students .  

Joining Marcel were Traci Abbott, adjunct assistant professor of English and media studies and coordinator of gender studies; Claudette Blot, director of the Summer Transition Education Program; Stephanie Kendall and Peter Forkner, clinicians in Counseling and Student Development; and Women’s Center members Edith Kwok ’11, Lisa Landry ’11 and Courtney Smigiel ’12. Together, they christened the effort Now End Relationship Violence (NERV).

Far-Reaching Problem

The issue of relationship violence is not unique to Bentley, of course. According to the National Center for Victims of Crime, 32 percent of college students report experiencing violence by a previous romantic partner, while 21 percent say they have experienced the same with their current partner.

At Bentley, NERV takes aim at these statistics in several ways. Goals include educating students, staff and faculty about violence in all types of relationships; empowering students to develop healthy relationships; providing resources and support for those experiencing relationship violence; and working to eliminate the problem from campus as much as possible.

For faculty, education began in March.  A workshop – Dating Violence and Your Students – highlighted unhealthy relationship behaviors, shared personal stories of students affected by relationship violence, and identified resources to tap for student support. The Women’s Center, Counseling and Student Development, and undergraduate peer advisers joined NERV as co-in sponsors.

Mark Bravo of the Management Department cites the workshop for “confirming the most appropriate approaches to these types of relationship problems. It was also very enlightening to hear about the issue from the student perspective.”
The group’s student-centered initiatives include bringing the White Ribbon Campaign, an effort led by men worldwide to end violence against women, to the Bentley campus. In April, NERV hosted a pledge-signing drive. Those who signed promised they would not commit relationship violence themselves — or look the other way if they learned it was occurring. 

“Many students may not even be aware that this happens on our own campus,” notes Landry, a Management and Liberal Studies major who also has a minor in Law. Plans are underway for additional outreach, including a resource booklet on the topic and special programs for groups at a statistically high risk of offense. “We want students to know relationship violence is a real issue, and that there are safe places for discussing it. All students should feel safe in their relationships.”