Tara Hansen – of the Oswego State women's track & field team – was one of the SUNYAC Student Athlete Advisory Committee (S.A.A.C.) members invited to attend New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo's State of the State Address on Jan. 3 in Albany.
During his speech, the governor recognized the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) for its efforts in raising awareness of domestic abuse and violence in relationships on campuses.
This past April, each of the 10 SUNYAC institutions had a 'Yards for Yeardley' event – in coordination with the One Love Foundation – in order to raise awareness on the issue. The league's commissioner challenged the campuses to get 10 million yards walked or ran as a conference. With each campus participating, the grand total from all of the participants was just over 25 million miles, with Oswego leading the way with nearly 5.7 million yards.
Aside from the annual Yards for Yeardley event, Oswego also has training sessions for its students pertaining to the escalation of domestic abuse and violence in relationships, as well as bystander training to recognize dangerous situations that might arise and how one can safely intervene in those scenarios.
Hansen, a senior thrower with the track & field program, is very active on campus. She is Vice President of the S.A.A.C., a member of the SUNYAC S.A.A.C. cabinet, sits on the It's On Us National Student Advisory Council and is a member of the Habitat for Humanity and Health Promotion and Wellness Clubs.
NOTE: Yeardley Love was a women's lacrosse player at the University of Virginia who lost her life at the hands of relationship violence. Boston College and Virginia lacrosse teams started the Yards for Yeardley campaign in December 2014 to raise awareness of relationship abuse. The cause quickly spread to more than 150 teams and has become an annual initiative.
