![\"metanoia](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/metanoia_lg-300x300.jpg\" "\\"metanoia")
Thirty years ago, students at the University of Connecticut declared a Metanoia \u2013 a Greek word that means \u201cchange of mind\u201d \u2013 that addressed racism and violence against women. This year, again, students have called for an opportunity to create another such campus-wide change in attitude.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s Metanoia<\/a> is focused on how far society has come in the last 30 years regarding gender issues, as well as a time to consider what still needs to be done. It is a call to move beyond the headlines and discussions of blue lights and self-defense, to a deeper, more critical examination of the community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe heart of this Metanoia is about moving the discussion from advocacy, intervention, and support \u2013 which I think UConn does very well \u2013 to a focus on prevention,\u201d says Preston Britner, co-chair for the Metanoia Planning Committee. \u201cWork by the Women\u2019s Center and students in the Violence Against Women Prevention Program needs to be matched by students, staff, faculty, and administrators, in the way we conduct ourselves and interact with one another as members of a civil society.\u201d<\/p>\n The program will kick off on Sunday, Oct. 4, with a panel discussion at Konover Auditorium in the Dodd Center, beginning at 4 p.m. The panel will feature an opening statement by University President Michael Hogan and a discussion with State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and other specialists in the field.<\/p>\n A student rally will take place on Monday, Oct. 5, on the Student Union Green. It will be preceded by a dialogue in the Student Union at 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n “As the UConn student body, we will not tolerate sexual assault, or the kind of culture that condones it,” says Rachel Smith, president of the University of Connecticut Residence Hall Association, and one of the students involved in coordinating the rally. \u201cOur rally is a student initiative that asks \u2018What will you do?\u2019 to take responsibility for this problem in your community.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the keynote speakers scheduled for the event is educator and activist Tony Porter. Co-founder of the national movement A Call to Men<\/a>, Porter aims to empower men by educating them about what they can do to end violence against women.<\/p>\n Porter\u2019s website advises men to \u201cacknowledge and understand how sexism, male dominance, and male privilege lay the foundation for all forms of violence against women.\u201d He urges men to \u201cchallenge traditional images of manhood that stop us from actively taking a stand to end violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Porter will give a talk on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. in Jorgensen Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.<\/p>\n Professors and instructors have also been encouraged to discuss the issues in their classrooms. Other events will include film series, theatrical performances, art exhibits, literature and poetry readings, and programs run by The Women\u2019s Center and other on-campus organizations. A complete schedule of events<\/a> can be found at the Metanoia website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A week of events focused on preventing violence against women will begin Oct. 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[43],"class_list":["post-5297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-10 18:29:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5297"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5365,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5297\/revisions\/5365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5297"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=5297"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}