The lamps that line Bruin Walk were still lit at 7 a.m., reflected in puddles of water as the rain that started on Halloween night continued to pour.
A group of five women circled the track in silence for a walk organized to support those silenced by what they describe as the stigma surrounding intimate partner violence.
Chrissy Keenan, co-director of the Bruin Consent Coalition, and Ronni Savage, the president of the Women of Concern Professionals’ Southern California division, organized the annual Domestic Violence Solidarity Walk at UCLA, which took place Saturday at Drake Stadium.
The walk was meant to tell those silenced by intimate partner violence that there are others standing by them, said Savage, an event coordinator at UCLA Recreation. On Saturday, Savage used a scooter to move along her leg with a broken foot around the stadium.
Some of the women at the event said they had experienced domestic violence firsthand and were participating to support women who have not yet escaped similar situations.
The event was inspired by Loretta Green-Williams, the founder of the Women of Concern Professionals, who attended her own walk in Sacramento Saturday morning. After her personal experience walking out of an abusive home and her daughter’s death because of domestic violence in 2001, she launched the Domestic Violence Solidarity walk.
UCLA was the first college campus to host the event in 2013, Green-Williams said. She added that she hoped other campuses would follow suit.
Besides Keenan, a third-year human biology and society student, Katharine Lee was the only other UCLA student in attendance.
The new member of the Bruin Consent Coalition and second-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, said she thinks intimate partner violence is treated as taboo, and every opportunity to fight the stigma is important.
Undergraduate Students Association Council Student Wellness Commissioner Savannah Badalich said she thinks walks for awareness can be excessive when organized for well-known causes, but that issues like intimate partner violence are rarely talked about.
Badalich, who is part of the Bruin Consent Coalition, added that she thinks events like the walk are important in gaining visibility and helping fight the stigma surrounding domestic violence.
Jessie Corral, a representative from Peace Over Violence, a social service agency which works to end all forms of interpersonal violence, said she thinks there are many myths surrounding intimate partner violence that may perpetuate its acceptance in society.
These myths include the idea that bruises and other physical trauma are the only evidence of domestic abuse and the idea that men are always the perpetrators and never the victims, she added.
When it comes to advocacy, Naomi Goldberg, who was a public policy fellow at UCLA from 2008 to 2010, said she thinks the first step is to fund better, more inclusive research about domestic violence. She said she thinks advocates should push for surveys that account for sexuality and gender identity to give public policy makers a better idea of how intimate partner violence within the queer community differs from current research.
While the walk’s purpose is to show solidarity, it is also meant to provide an open space, Green-Williams said. This year, the small group of women discussed the importance of educating others about how to identify different kinds of abuse.
At 8 a.m., the sun came out, adding some color and warmth to the bleak scene. The group of women gradually broke their silence in favor of conversation before packing up their things after an hour and a half of walking.
To make the walk bigger next year, Keenan said she plans to reach out to specific communities such as Greek life and the athletics department to encourage more students to turn out.