DASB Senate unanimously votes for dating violence awareness program

The DASB Senate passed two motions unanimously for supporting the implementation of the One Love Foundation Program at De Anza College and for sponsoring the event “Refugees and Us” on Jan. 26.

Senators Maharshi Mandal, Kamyar Saii and student Imad Ballout facilitated a workshop under the One Love Foundation, an organization with a mission to raise awareness about dating violence made in honor of Yeardley Love, a young woman who was killed by her ex-boyfriend.

“Our ultimate goal is to get it mandated for all students, but our current approach is to work with the athletes as kind of a starter program,” Saii said.

The workshop included a film called “Escalation,” which depicts the story of a couple in an abusive relationship.

The film emphasized the importance of bystander intervention, as friends of both the abused and the abuser chose to ignore a lot of red flags in their relationship, which resulted in the death of the victim.

After watching the film, the senators broke out into groups and discussed different aspects of the film and how it affected the way they saw dating violence.

The discussions sparked conversations about people’s own experiences with abusive relationships or those of their loved ones.
After the discussion groups, the senate voted unanimously to support the implementation of the program at De Anza.

“I’m very excited about this,” said DASB adviser Hyon Chu Yi-Baker.

“If you think about it, we are in the midst of a major culture shift in our country and really, globally. And you are all a part of making that shift so I just have to say that and just applaud you.”

Student trustee on the Foothill-De Anza Board of Trustees, Elias Kamal, 20, political science major, also presented and asked the senate to sponsor an upcoming event called “Refugees and Us” where manager of Oinofyta Refugee Camp in Greece, Lisa Campbell, will be speaking about the refugee crisis in Europe.

“We don’t have a lot of opportunities to see the global inequities or to experience international relations,” Kamal said. “A lot of us are so focused on our local communities, which isn’t a bad thing, but people still need to have exposure to this.”

The senate unanimously passed the motion to sponsor the event.

Also, president Kalani Hettige announced the resignations of senators Imad Ballout, Julius Salud, Cialysiah Washington and Druthi Srirama.

Then senator and chair of finance committee, Amanda Le asked the senate to put their phones and laptops away as she spoke to them about meeting etiquette to prepare the senate for the upcoming budget meetings.

“It’s really important that we take this seriously because we’re dealing with $1.1 million,” Le said. “People are going to come here and they’re concerned about their programs. And yes, we’re going to be cutting funds and it’s going to be emotionally charged and tough on people.”