Interim Chancellor Christopher Markwood is just one of a number of University of Wisconsin-Superior staff, faculty and students to pledge to end violence against women by signing the White Ribbon Pledge as part of the White Ribbon Campaign.

The White Ribbon Campaign, which will start on Nov. 9 at UW-Superior, was initially started by men who opposed violence against women following 1989 shootings at a Montreal University by a shooter who intentionally targeted women, but the campaign is now open to all who stand for the cause.

 “I feel that we as men are privileged in a lot of ways,” said Joe Morcomb, the Men’s Outreach Gender Equity Intern at UW-Superior. He believes it is important for men to stand up against those other men who are violent towards women, and for that reason he believes it is important to sign the pledge.

Morcomb is responsible for promoting the White Ribbon campaign on campus, and says initially he planned it for men to stand up against violence towards women, but now he says he wants anyone who is willing to stand against violence towards women to do so.

“It’s about changing the campus culture,” he said. “Signing the pledge acknowledges that we as men are the main perpetrator [of violence against women] and that we won’t stand for it.”

Morcomb doesn’t believe violence against women is necessarily a problem at UW-Superior, but he acknowledges that people who have experienced such abuse and violence in the past go to school here and also that he believes the problem is more the attitudes that some people have about women. As such, he believes the campaign is an opportunity for education on the topic.

“It’s tough to bring these things up,” he added. “How cool would it be to go to school in a space where no one rips on women?”

Chancellor Markwood intended to sign the pledge on Friday, but he was unable to due to other commitments that surfaced. Morcomb hopes the chancellor will be able to sign sometime early this week.