Though sexual violence is often perceived to primarily be an act of violence committed against women, University leaders are working to increase awareness of male assaults, and encourage male students to participate in outreach and prevention programs.

Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of the University’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, said though some members of the campus community think SAPAC works mainly with women, it strives to connect with members of all genders on campus — female, male or unidentified.

“Teaching and preventing sexual violation has to be community-driven,” Rider-Milkovich said.

SAPAC promotes healthy relationships among students on campus by educating them on sex trafficking, partner violence and bystander effect, she said. In addition to promoting outreach to males, SAPAC also deals with male survivors of sexual violence. Rider-Milkovich said 30 percent of the students served by SAPAC are male survivors.

Ryan Kubec, program manager of SAPAC, echoed Rider-Milkovich’s remarks that sexual assault is a problem that should be dealt with by the community as a whole, regardless of gender.

“It affects the community and thus has to be presented as a community issue,” Kubec said.

LSA senior Carley Flanery, a peer education coordinator for SAPAC, said often times people judge organizations like SAPAC for being female-driven and organized against males, which she said is not the case.

“When I tell people that I work for SAPAC, some people still think it’s a women-centered, men-bashing organization or a counseling center like CAPS,” Flanery said.

Flanery added that consequently, men often tend to feel that they do not have a place in sexual violence organizations like SAPAC because “they feel they won’t be seen as capable of helping.”

To increase male involvement in sexual assault prevention, SAPAC founded Men’s Activisim in 2004, which is the youngest of SAPAC’s three programs, which include Networking, Publicity and Activism and Peer Education.

Men’s Activism workshops teach men on campus about sexual violence prevention and raise awareness about male rape. Flanery said she has seen consistent growth in the number of men involved in SAPAC over the past four years.

“It is becoming more accepted for men to be involved in sexual violence issues,” she said.

Rider-Milkovich said SAPAC would like to encourage increased male involvement in sexual assault prevention in the future.

“There is a lot of room to engage a lot of men to our work,” Rider-Milkovich said. “Right now there are 30 Men’s Activists and I would love to see that number grow to 100. There is enough work to be done.”

Flanery said the ultimate goal of Men’s Activism is to build better partnerships with the Athletic Department and the Inter-Cooperative Council by eventually training student-athletes and members of co-ops to facilitate their own workshops.

“We want men and do have many men who are involved,” Flanery said. “Showing that they do have a place and that we want men to be involved is crucial.”

Men’s Activism seeks way to engage men through activities like “No Shave November” last year, which encouraged men to grow a beard and explain the importance of sexual consent to people who asked them about their beard.

LSA senior Kathleen Carbone, president of University Students Against Rape, said many men don’t believe they have been sexually assaulted after experiencing an incident. Students Against Rape invites both female and male survivors to discuss their experiences in a comfortable group setting, Carbone said.