Living and learning on campus can be a positive experience, but unfortunately it can also be a place where students and faculty can encounter serious acts of sexual assault and violence.

In order to raise awareness this October for National Dating and Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Grand Valley State University’s Women’s Center will host a series of events and activities that will address domestic violence on college campuses.

Ashley Schulte, the victim advocate and violence against women grant coordinator at the center, said this month is a time to both celebrate achievements and open further discussion about gender-based violence on college campuses.

“It’s not very widely known, as October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but I think that if you are to pay attention to how October feels on campus this month you will hopefully see that there is a theme to what we have planned,” Schulte said.

The month will include the launch of the HopeLine phone collection, a phone drive to collect used phones for those affected by domestic violence, and the Clothesline Project, which displays personal stories of dating and domestic violence and also messages of hope.

The Women’s Center will also show the documentaries “The Hunting Ground,” on Oct. 6 at 6 p.m. in the Cook-DeWitt Center, and “Telling Amy’s Story,” on Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Pere Marquette Room of the Kirkhof Center. Both documentaries indicate specific incidents of sexual violence on college campuses and how their communities handled the situations.

“The documentary and expose film ‘The Hunting Ground,’ showcases students lived experiences as they disclose to their colleges and universities that they were sexually assaulted on their campuses and how their universities responded,” Schulte said. “Some of that is really raw as it doesn’t paint universities in the best of light, it says that we have an issue on our campuses and it doesn’t paint groups like the athletics and Greek community in a good light – so how does it end? How do we make this stop?”

Schulte said the best way to educate students about sexual assault and violence is to put some structures in place so that the GVSU community can hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions.

In order to prevent further violence on campuses and to create further discussion, the Women’s Center is also hosting a bystander intervention training on Oct. 16 from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the Mary Idema Pew Library so the entire GVSU community may be effective bystanders in situations of domestic violence, sexual assault and bullying.

“Bystander intervention training is not the end all of sexual assault,” Schulte said, “But it will hopefully give students the knowledge and courage to speak up when they see instances of the culture that creates gender based violence.”

Rachael Blansett, a senior and member of the Milton E. Ford LGBT Resource Center, said this month is really important in helping empower students to tell their stories and seek help.

“Interpersonal violence, like being assaulted by someone you know or date, occurs more often than really the concept of stranger danger,” she said. “And while this form of violence is not obviously gender based or sexuality based, this happens right across the board, which is really something that the campus and students need to be made aware of.”

For further information about the Women’s Center’s October events, visit www.gvsu.edu/women_cen.