Men flip burgers at open house

Jessica Bittner

“Sensitive Men Flipping Burgers” is the theme of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center’s open house, which runs today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Head basketball coaches Bill Fennelly and Larry Eustachy, African-American Studies Director Herman Blake, Minority Student Affairs Director Rafael Rodriguez, Associate Dean of Students Houston Dougharty and Assistant Athletics Director Elve Everage are among those who will be manning the grill, according to a press release.

Plenty of free hamburgers, chips and drinks will be available for all who are interested.

The women’s center is designed to create workshops and programs dealing with issues that are directly related to young adults. Some of the focuses for women this year include rape, breast cancer awareness, confidence courses and sex and alcohol.

The new men’s programs deal with sexual assault, dating/family/domestic violence, sexism in the media’s language and male and female communication.

“Through our men’s outreach program, we hope to raise the level of awareness about the importance of involving men in dialogues about women,” Pamela Thomas, director of the women’s center, said in a press release.

The programs are presented to different residence halls, or to members of the greek system throughout the year.

“We are interested in any new ideas, working with any and all campus organizations,” said Marcia Purdy, secretary of the women’s center.

The center’s goal is to educate both males and females.

“We’re not up there saying ‘you bad men,'” said David White, who handles the men’s outreach program. “It’s not the bad people, it’s the poor decision making [that causes problems].”

Alissa Stoehr is the Women’s Week programmer. The center also employs three graduate assistants: Vikki Carnine-Irwin, Gina Lopezi and Julie Wooden.

White is currently the only male member trained in his position, which is why the focus of the open house is on “Sensitive Men.”

“We need to train more men to fill my position because I am graduating in December,” White said.