Roosevelt Faculty Jill Coleman Adds Domestic Violence Awareness to Courses

By Angela Walsberg, Roosevelt University student

Imagine being a victim of domestic abuse, the one you love is hurting you, and there was no one there to help you out? This is how it used to be—earlier. Back then, if a domestic violence issue arose and the police were called to the scene, the police would most likely just set the two individuals aside and try to talk to them to settle their dispute. Often this method would not work, and the abuse would get worse, resulting in the police returning to the same house multiple times without the root of the issue being solved. The violence continues to escalate, possibly resulting in the victim’s death. This example of the cycle of violence captures the essence of a story, that many who have experienced abuse in the past, and the reason why Domestic Violence awareness education needs to be taken seriously.

Domestic abuse is described as a way to try and gain control over a partner. Domestic abuse can be physical, emotional, or verbal abuse. Most domestic violence happens between married couples, but can also happen between dating couples, and affects anyone regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, or gender.

Although domestic violence has always been a serious issue, now there are additional stricter laws for domestic abuse. In fact, many companies and even schools are now offering domestic awareness programs to educate on the prevention of domestic violence.
One such place is Roosevelt University. At both its campuses (Schaumburg and Chicago), faculty that are working hard to educate their students about domestic abuse. Also, the state of Illinois has the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence that provides educational and training resources. This group also works with local organizations to raise awareness about violence.
Here at the local level, there are many other local government and community organizations that do hands-on work with women who are in abusive relationships or trying to leave those relationships. A strong one is the Northwest Suburban Alliance on Domestic Violence, which co-sponsoring (with Roosevelt University) a domestic violence conference at Schaumburg’s campus on Oct. 27th. Those who attended heard guest speakers and community leaders talk about this problem, and learned more about what’s being done—and can be.

One such Roosevelt faculty member, Dr. Jill Coleman, social psychologist, teaches a Psychology of Women course. As she puts it, “Some instructors, myself included, also try to include information about domestic violence into our courses. If individuals in the campus community are dealing with violent relationships in their own lives, our counseling center has resources to guide them through their specific situations”.

Dr. Coleman estimates that about 10-20% of students in a given Psychology of Women class have had some sort of personal experience with partner violence, and says, “Perhaps they have been in relationships themselves or have a close friend or family member who was/is in an abusive relationship”.

Many victims of domestic violence usually tend to keep it to themselves, and don’t file reports against their abuser. This may be because they feel such violence is caused by something they did to upset the abusers.

Whatever the reason, trying to hide the fact that a person was (or is) a victim of abuse will not help that victim out in life. The emotional and psychological consequences of domestic abuse are severe. Many reports state that these can lead to anxiety, depression, a sense of loneliness in the world, or of being isolated. In fact, experiencing domestic violence can even lead to suicide by victims. Unfortunately, most of the symptoms or abuse are ignored , and often, many people just don’t realize how common and serious this issue really is.

Recently, Dr. Coleman’s class (Psychology 345: Psychology of Women) completed a service project to benefit the Women in Need Growing Stronger (WINGS) organization in Palatine, IL, and organized a drive on the Schaumburg campus to collect clothing and other household supplies that were then delivered to one of the organization’s drop-off locations. Some of her students extended the collection sites to their homes and workplaces, with one student using Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights as a collection site.

“We also organized a food sale that helped raise nearly $300 for the organization,” Coleman says. “Throughout the semester, we discussed issues related to violence against women (i.e., sexual harassment, sexual assault, partner violence, etc.).”

During spring semester 2012, she will be offering the class as a Transformational Service Learning class, thanks to a grant from the Mansfield Institute for Social Justice at Roosevelt University. Students in the class will be required to complete 20 hours of community based service during the semester. While students will not be required to pick a service site that deals with violence against women, Coleman predicts that a number of students in the class will be interested in this kind of work. She is currently looking for sites to partner with.

Coleman explains her feelings about domestic violence this way: “ I think domestic violence is a complicated issue. A lot of college students, particularly traditional age students, are not aware of how prevalent partner violence is. I believe that there are also misconceptions about abusive relationships, such as that they all involve physical abuse and that they are abusive from the very beginning, when neither of these is necessarily true.

Coleman continues, “Because people are not educated about the cycle of violence or the early warning signs, they are more vulnerable to being involved in violent relationships and not removing themselves from situations as early as they could. “ Her bottom line: “People should be educated early about partner violence, and this education should be directed at both women and men.”

Roosevelt University Students are learning about domestic violence in their Writing Social Justice course.