The Public Administration and Legal Studies Program hosted the Harassment Prevention Workshop on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 in the SBPA building. The forum shed information on different harassment situations with a full house of 100-120 in attendance.
UOG President, Robert Underwood, Ph. D., and Annette Santos, Ph.D., opened the workshop with welcoming remarks. Underwood spoke about his passion for keeping students safe and making sure that the subject of harassment never goes unnoticed.
The six keynote speakers included Ron McNinch, Ph.D., Attorney Ron Aguon, Carlos Pangelinan, Ansito Walters, Ph.D., John Rivera Ph.D. and FBI agent Joe McDoughlett.
“There are no wrong doors,” McNinch told audience members when it came to talking to a faculty member about harassment, he expanded that it is the nature of harassment that matters.
Audience members got the privilege to hear Ansito Walters speak about Micronesian culture. He targeted his lecture to the men in the crowd.
“You are responsible and respect the girls because we are in Micronesia,” he said. “We are Micronesian.”
He emphasized that it is part of Micronesian culture to respect women because without women, we are not anything. Women are the queens and have the final say.
John Rivera presented on three specific points about Guam’s Inafa’maolek culture. His first point is to admit that you’re wrong and move on. The second is ‘Inafa’ which means ‘to make’ and ‘maolek’ which is ‘good’. There was once something that was right and now is wrong. Inafa’maolek is ‘the harmony to make what is right.’ His third point is that Inafa’maolek speaks to us more as a community than an individual.
We should strive to become better individuals because each individual makes up our island’s community. UOG student, Connor Linn said, “Rivera discussed the islands culture and related it to respect. He was very influential and made me proud to be Guamanian.”
FBI agent Bill Corbett reminded us that cyber harassment occurs and individuals have three lives consisting of a public, private, and a secret life. He discussed that it is ultimately up to the jury to decide the punishment for harassment.
UOG senior, Lauren Montinola said, “Something that I have learned in my human resource classes as well as a point that McNinch brought up in his presentation was that harassment is mostly dependent on the perception of the victim. Their perception is their reality, regardless of the “attacker’s” intention.”

 

She was fascinated by the perspective of the FBI representative and now thinks twice about what she shares on social media and who she talks to. She thought the workshop was successful and reminded her that it is necessary to be aware of your surroundings no matter the time and place.