Eve Ensler, a playwright and activist, earned a standing ovation Wednesday night when she said Chancellor Kent Syverud owed the Syracuse University community an apology for the closing of the Advocacy Center last June.

“To shut down that center without the input of the students, without the feedback of students and survivors, to me, is another form of violation,” Ensler said.

Ensler, best known for writing “The Vagina Monologues,” spoke in Hendricks Chapel Wednesday night as a part of the University Lecture Series, a cross-disciplinary lecture series, and delivered her lecture, “In the Body of Justice.”

In 1996, Ensler first performed “The Vagina Monologues,” a play featuring monologues from multiple perspectives on various topics, including feminism, sexuality, love and the vagina itself. “The Vagina Monologues” is performed in communities across the world, including SU.

In her lecture, Ensler said she felt detached from her body because of her abusive childhood. When she was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she originally was against chemotherapy because she saw it as poison to her body. Her former therapist, however, told her that the chemotherapy was poison for the cancer, and that the cancer represented the people who had violated her. That helped Ensler become more connected with her body.

Beside the play, Ensler is also known for creating V-Day, a global movement to stop violence against women and girls. One of V-Day’s most recent campaigns is One Billion Rising, which calls on 1 billion people to stand up against violence and oppression against women, according to the official website.

In a time when people are more aware of problems with current policies on college campuses, Ensler said she was surprised that a resource for survivors like the Advocacy Center would be shut down. Instead, there needs to be more resources created, Ensler said.

She also admired SU students for standing up through the protests and petitions, but said she does not like how the closing was handled by SU administration.

“Process is everything,” she said.

Audience members said they were glad Ensler mentioned the Advocacy Center closing and encouraged them to stand up for change.

Becca Glaser, a third-year creative writing graduate student, said she was pleased to hear Ensler talk about the Advocacy Center. When Glaser went to the SU diversity forum held on Oct. 2, she asked Syverud how people could move forward if he hadn’t apologized.

In order to heal and move on and create trust with the larger community, it would be wonderful to have that apology, Glaser said.

Taylyn Washington-Harmon, a junior magazine major, agreed with Ensler’s comment about how Syverud should apologize. She felt the SU community did not get a full explanation behind the decision to close the Advocacy Center. People need to stand up and show why the center was important, especially to sexual assault victims, she added.

Emily Francisco, an art history and museum studies graduate student, said it was a good thing for Ensler to bring up those issues and tell students to speak up. Francisco added that the student body was not consulted when the Advocacy Center suddenly closed this summer.

“I think that students are kind of an important part of the community at universities,” Francisco said. “I think it was our job to speak up when these things happen because we really are the university.”

Published on October 15, 2014 at 11:57 pm

Contact Ellen: ekmeyers@syr.edu | @ellenkmeyers