Photo courtesy of Nu Alpha Kappa
Nu Alpha Kappa brothers listen to a speech delivered by Jo Harvey on Saturday, May 2 in the Joe Crowley Student Union. The University of Nevada, Reno conference is one of 26 total events taking place at NAK chapters nationwide.
Staff Report
On Saturday, May 2, brothers from fraternity Nu Alpha Kappa, Inc. held an internal conference to promote awareness of sexual harassment and alcohol abuse. The conference is one of a series being held by 26 NAK chapters nationwide to foster responsibility among both NAK brothers and the Greek community in general.
Part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, the conference brought in University of Nevada, Reno prevention coordinator Jo Harvey as a guest speaker. Harvey, who spoke about her own experience with addiction at TEDxUniversityofNevada in January, spoke for nearly an hour and a half on being conscious of what constitutes sexual harassment and alcohol abuse.
“It’s tremendous that these young men are taking the steps to proactively educate themselves on these issues and realize that a lot of the times, situations like these come down to the simple decisions they make,” Harvey said in a press release.
For the past few years, Harvey has taught the Overview for Addiction course in Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies. The course comes as an extension to Harvey’s experience as program specialist for student conduct, where she creates campus-wide drug and alcohol prevention programs.
According to NAK Alumni Association president and conference organizer Juan López, the conference was organized partly to coincide with Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but also to combat the negative stereotypes sometimes associated with fraternities through education.
“There’s been a lot in the media about the racism at [Sigma Alpha Epsilon] or hazing or fraternities in general,” López said. “[At] our fraternity, we all made a commitment to educating ourselves about these issues.”
López went on to note that he felt the conference went well and was able to open up the whole group to a new range of positivity.
While not strictly open to the public, the conference was instead open to approximately 40 members of both NAK and Lambda Psi Rho who attended the conference.
There are no current plans for another similar event in the future, but López is hopeful that the tradition will continue to exist and grow.
“I’m a firm believer in the power of education,” López said. “Imagine if we had 250 men in the room, imagine the impact.”
The news desk can be reached at rhernandez@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @TheSagebrush.
