Student Body President Shaun Smith speaks about the importance of this event. |Brittaney Penney/The Cougar
Beauty is pain, and now men will have a chance to “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” on Thursday afternoon by the Cullen Performance Hall.
The Student Government Association hosted the event to raise awareness for victims of sexual assault and gender-based violence on campus.
Health and wellness are prevalent issues on college campuses, including UH. SGA President Shaun Theriot-Smith, and the entirety of SGA, are working to tackle these problems this year.
A big change Theriot-Smith hopes to bring around is an increased level of comfort about discussing sexual health, among other taboo subjects.
“We have a culture that isn’t really comfortable talking about consent, speaking about sexual health (or) speaking about relationships,” Theriot-Smith said.
“It’s our responsibility as student leaders to find ways to create those dialogues and create those conversations, so that we can feel comfortable talking about that among our peers.”
SGA has collaborated with other student organizations and worked to host a number of events to raise awareness for victims and survivors of sexual assault, such as “Take Back the Night.”
While he may be trying to bring attention to a seemingly new topic, Theriot-Smith said that events like Walk a Mile in Her Shoes work into the constant themes from administrations past.
“We always have these perennial topics of student life and auxiliary services,” Theriot-Smith said.
“Anything that caters to student life on campus, dining services (and) civic engagement…are things we want to address all year long, in addition to having those main thematic elements. Everything we do supports that main thematic bridge of health and wellness.”
From there, students will take a one mile walk around campus in high heels or other women’s shoes as a sign of solidarity with victims and survivors of assaults.
