April 4, 2002

Contact: Ranjit Arab, University Relations, (785) 864-8855.

Men's outreach coordinator hopes to change campus attitudes

LAWRENCE -- David Braham has been busy all semester meeting with student organizations, fraternity houses, residence halls -- anyone who will listen to him at the University of Kansas.

He is not running for Student Senate, but he is on a campaign of sorts.

As the first men's outreach coordinator at KU, Braham is trying to raise awareness of the number of resources available to the male student population, such as counseling, workshops and visiting lecturers. Through this new position, he hopes to engage male students in an open dialogue on a number of topics, from sex-role stereotypes to building healthy relationships to preventing violence against women.

Although Braham is mostly a one-man operation in the newly formed Men's Outreach Program, he works closely with the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center, which performs a similar service for female students.

Kathy Rose-Mockry, director of the resource center, said KU is one of only a handful of universities that currently provide men's outreach services. However, Rose-Mockry said, colleges across the nation were quickly understanding the need for such programs.

"Down the road, I think it will be a pretty standard portion of programming within student affairs units," she said. "I think it's wonderful KU is taking the lead and has recognized it as an important need."

Rose-Mockry said that one of Braham's goals is to create a mentoring network that fosters a sense of empowerment among male students so they re-examine social norms and speak up when they see improper behavior among their peers.

"Not only do we need to do a better job of identifying issues impacting our male students, but we need men to be addressing men because the message is different than when women are having that conversation," she said.

The position was created earlier this semester by the Campus Coalition for Men, a campuswide committee of almost 30 male administrators and faculty members from a number of disciplines. The coalition, formed in the spring of 2000, already has sponsored several workshops and speakers to address men's issues. One of the most prominent speakers was Jackson Katz, a leading male activist for the prevention of violence against women. Katz, who spoke at KU in August 2000, has advised the military and professional sports organizations, among many others, on gender violence prevention.

Braham, a May 2001 graduate in sociology is currently wrapping up a degree in women's studies. He said he already has developed a number of ways to gauge the level of awareness on campus. Along with meeting with campus leaders, fraternities, residence halls and classes, he has held several discussion groups, where men can freely express their views on a number of these issues.

While he is doing his best to make himself accessible to students, Braham admits it's not always an easy task.

"As a student-educator it is a big challenge to walk into a fraternity house or residence hall and defuse some of the initial defensiveness to get them to listen," he said.

Braham is off to a good start, but he said he doesn't expect attitudes to change overnight. Instead, he said, he would measure the program's success by the people he has reached.

"My goal is to create an atmosphere where men can feel comfortable communicating their ideas, emotions and concerns," Braham said. "If we really want to bring about change in the way men and women interact, men will have to take a positive leading role."