Men don’t often seek help. Across virtually every demographic category, men are less likely than women to seek help for a variety of issues, despite being more likely to experience drug and alcohol problems, incarceration, or violence (both as perpetrators and as victims). Men die, on average, more than seven years younger than women and have higher rates of all fifteen of the leading causes of death in America. College men are also up to six times more likely than college women to commit suicide. Former UO student Jim Evangelista, who sounded the call for a “functional” Men’s Center in the Emerald (“University needs a functional men’s center,” ODE Feb. 5, 2007), was one of the exceptions. He did seek help. Unfortunately, there were insufficient support services available for campus men at that time. Much has changed in the past five years though, thanks in part to men like Evangelista who were vocal about the need for such support.
The UOMC has established a wide array of services for UO students of all genders, directly serving over 500 students in the past year. Our Myths of Masculinity discussion group (Wednesdays, 4:30, EMU Century Room E) and General Membership meeting (Mondays, 4:30, the UOMC office in EMU Suite 2) continue to thrive. Our Mad Skills curriculum continues to evolve, providing a cutting-edge service that has yielded national attention. The UOMC has recently presented at the University’s annual Crisis Prevention Conference and in various classrooms, and we continue to work extensively with other campus and community organizations. POWER (People Owning Wellness to Enrich Relationships), a coalition of campus and community organizations that originated in a collaboration between the UOMC and Womenspace, is working to reduce interpersonal violence in Lane County. The coalition has grown considerably and we will be hosting our first POWER conference in the fall of 2007. In addition, we are currently working with the Inter-Fraternity Council and the Leadership Resource Office to establish an outreach program that will enable college men to visit area middle and high schools to talk with younger men about healthy relationships.
Evangelista notes his frustration regarding unequal funding, comparing the UOMC and the UO Women’s Center. First of all, he might be pleased to visit our new office in the EMU (Suite 2) that we are excited to share with the Nontraditional Student Union, the Veterans and Family Student Association, Child Care Subsidy, and the Designated Driver Shuttle. In fact, we will be co-hosting an Open House on Friday, February 16th from 2-7 p.m. We will be playing games, eating pizza and meeting our neighbors. Please come on by!
With regard to the unequal funding question, there are two explanations for this inequality. First of all, we are a newer organization and, like any other student group, we must work to establish ourselves within the University context, both as a resource for students and as an organization working in collaboration with other more established groups. Second, the UOMC recognizes that there is a long history of challenges and social injustices that women face on all levels of our society (e.g. career advancement, unequal pay, higher rates of domestic violence and sexual assault, etc.), which may justify channeling more resources toward an organization such as the UO Women’s Center. Seeking equality on the “bottom line” ignores the cultural context in which our work occurs and would, instead, perpetuate existing inequalities. Finally, the Women’s Center has been consistently supportive of the UOMC, and working to support their efforts is one of our fundamental organizational goals.
In closing, I would like to thank all of the volunteers and interns who have helped to make the UOMC a meaningful program for students of all genders at the UO. I would also love to hear from others with ideas and visions of how the UOMC could be more useful. You can contact us at [email protected], call us at 346-0743, stop by our new office in the EMU, Suite 2, or join us at our General Membership meeting. We would love your input and ideas as we continue our work to help men lead healthy lives.
Marcus Foley is the Director of the UO Men’s Center