QU offers daily events in connection with Men’s Awareness Week

By EDWARD HUSAR
Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Quincy University is giving students and community residents a chance to learn about issues and concerns facing college men — particularly student-athletes — by hosting a series of events in connection with Men’s Awareness Week.

The activities began Monday and will continue each day through Sunday.

Monday’s events included a kickoff luncheon followed by an evening talk on the importance of building spirituality in one’s life as a steppingstone to success.

Other topics to be covered this week touch on networking, resume building, preparation for life after sports, relationships and the status of black men on campus.

Participants also can take part in a 3-on-3 basketball tournament Friday at the Health and Fitness Center and a public service remodeling project Saturday at Quincy’s Teen Reach center. Activities will conclude Sunday with a wrap-up luncheon at 2 p.m., followed by a Mass at 6 p.m.

Men’s Awareness Week is sponsored by QU’s Office of Multicultural and Leadership Programs, but several members of the QU football program played a key role in organizing the week’s events.

Antonio Land, a senior who has played football for QU since his freshman year, said he wanted to get involved because he hopes the weeklong program will benefit future student-athletes who come to QU.

“What interested me was trying to eliminate a lot of stereotypes that males have as far as going to college and getting involved in college activities besides sports,” Land said. “A lot of football players here at Quincy University aren’t viewed as being involved with the community or being involved with the educational world around them and are just here for sports. We want to eliminate that stereotype with some of the events we have going on.”

Land said he felt there was “something missing” with regard to helping young men adjust to college life and the personal challenges they face — particularly black athletes. “We wanted to put together an event that will help build leadership and give people the chance to have the foundation to advance their personal and professional lives,” he said.

Natasha Ramsey, director of multicultural and leadership programs at QU, said Men’s Awareness Week resulted from an effort by her office — which opened on campus last June — to try to address some of the concerns about issues facing young men on campus, particularly black student-athletes. The goal of the week’s activities, she said, is to provide awareness and build support networks.

“We’re going to be able to hear from the men’s point of view and give them an opportunity to touch on some issues that oftentimes we don’t take the time to listen to that perspective,” she said.

“You’ve going to have professional development that is going to be geared toward grooming men to get ready for internships and jobs. You’re going to have a relationship forum that’s going to allow for the women to hear from the men’s perspective on the interaction between relationships. And you’re going to have a forum that’s going to talk about men and their spirituality.”

Nearly all of the scheduled events are open to everybody on campus — women as well as men — along with people from the community, except for a forum from 8 to 9:30 tonight (Tuesday) on preparing for life after sports. This session is for men only and will feature Ed Stewart, associate commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, and Marlon Favorite, a former defensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles.

A complete schedule of the week’s activities can be found at http://hawks.quincy.edu/documents/2012/1/30/menschedule.pdf?id=406.

QU Hawks football players involved in organizing the event include Land, Todd Jordan, Fritz Lauriston, Erik Wilson and Olabinjo Osundairo.

Land said football players took a lead in organizing the week “because we’re a pretty close-knit group of guys and we thought it would be good to get something started to raise awareness about the involvement of men — athletes and non-athletes –on campus,” he said.

“We’re hoping to get a lot of athletes (to attend this week’s events) and a lot of students simply because it is an on-campus activity,” he added. “We’re hoping they can come out and get something positive from each and every event that we’ve got going on.” 

— ehusar@whig.com/221-3378