MBS Corps to host March Against Domestic Violence on Oct. 15

The Maine Business School (MBS) Corps will host its eighth annual March Against Domestic Violence at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, beginning in front of Fogler Library on the University of Maine campus.

Scheduled speakers include Karyn Sporer, sociology professor who specializes in family violence and victimization; Robert Dana, vice president for student life and inclusive excellence and dean of students; Casey Faulkingham, director of development and engagement for Partners for Peace; representatives of Male Athletes Against Violence (MAAV) and UMaine Army ROTC; as well as survivors of intimate partner violence.

During the pandemic, domestic abuse reports have spiked in the United States and around the world, according to the American Journal of Emergency Medicine, U.N. Women, and police departments across the country. Due to the pandemic, organizers held last fall’s march virtually.

Nory Jones, the John M. Murphy Professor of Business Information Systems and the MBS faculty adviser, has helped organize the annual marches. 

“It’s shocking so many young people on campus experience partner violence, often do not recognize it and feel alone and powerless to seek help,” she says. “Therefore, we started the MADV to bring awareness and educate our students so that they understand and can help themselves and others; find their voice and make a difference.”

MBS Corps president Kathryn Kane ’22, who majors in accounting and finance, will emcee the event. 

“We hope that by bringing awareness we are able to help college students identify and take action if they are ever put in a dangerous situation,” she says. 

Names of people killed in 2020 in Maine as a result of domestic violence will be read and flowers in remembrance of their lives will be placed on the library steps. A bake sale will be held to benefit Partners for Peace, which has a confidential 24-hour helpline (1.800.863.9909) for anyone who is being abused, and anyone concerned about someone they know being abused.

A bake sale will be held to benefit Partners for Peace, Maine’s oldest domestic violence resource center and the third oldest in the country with nearly 50 years of service to survivors of domestic violence in the Penobscot and Piscataquis county region. The confidential 24-hour helpline (1.800.863.9909) is for anyone who is being abused, and anyone concerned about someone they know being abused.

Event partners include Title IX Student Services, Student Life, UMaine Athletics, UMaine Army ROTC, the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Partners for Peace, and other organizations.

For more information about the march, email Jones at njones@maine.edu. To request a reasonable accommodation, call 207.581.1226.