Popejoy Hall turns purple for Domestic Violence Awareness Month

For the first time, Popejoy Hall was lit purple nightly from Oct. 8-18 in recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which is observed every October across the United States.

The lighting was a collaboration between the University of New Mexico Women’s Resource Center and Popejoy Hall, and is among several other planned purple-themed WRC events on campus, including “Wear Your Purple Fit for Homecoming Weekend” on Oct. 22, and the short film screening and discussion of “When Girls Go Missing” at the UNM Student Union Building theater from 4-6 p.m. on Oct. 23. 

UNMWRC Director Áine McCarthy told the Daily Lobo that in light of Thursday being “Purple Thursday” — recognized nationally on the third Thursday of October during Domestic Violence Awareness Month — the WRC wanted to extend the purple theme into UNM’s homecoming weekend. 

“So we’re encouraging folks to wear purple to show solidarity with survivors of domestic violence, and we’re excited that Popejoy showed their solidarity by lighting up (the exterior) purple,” McCarthy said. 

McCarthy said it was one of the center’s graduate assistants, Marina Perez, who proposed reaching out to Popejoy with the idea.

Popejoy Hall Director Fabianna Borghese Tabeling wrote in a statement that the building was lit purple to join “campus partners in raising awareness of domestic violence and recognizing the importance of education, prevention, and resources for survivors.”

“As a part of the UNM and Albuquerque communities, Popejoy Hall believes in the power of coming together to support meaningful causes,” Borghese Tabeling wrote. 

McCarthy said that the WRC has “scaled up” their prevention education work, and has various working groups that work to reduce the number of sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking incidents on campus, including the “men and masculine people” working group. 

The working group mostly consists of staff members, but McCarthy said male students who want to get involved will be able to do so through the new male mentorship program that will be launching in the Spring 2027 semester.  

“One of the groups is called the SMART Team, Sexual Misconduct and Assault Response Team, and that’s staff that work in victim services as well as UNMPD, and in that group we’ve historically done case studies where we’ll review a Title IX case that we all worked on together and talk about process improvement for how our different offices can support students going through that process to make it smoother for them,” McCarthy said. 

The UNMWRC is one of the first college campus-based women’s centers in the country, according to McCarthy, and has worked with survivors as confidential advocates since most staff and faculty are mandated to report all incidents to a UNM compliance office like Title IX. 

“But we’re exempt from that responsibility so that we can help students navigate their reporting options and work on safety planning and support for them even if they don’t want to report,” McCarthy said. “And we do often accompany students through the reporting process. So our advocates will attend the Title IX investigation meetings with the student or go with them to get the police report or the restraining order.” 

The film screening on Friday will explore the connections between domestic violence and trafficking as it affects immigrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, as well as with Indigenous families in New Mexico, McCarthy told the Daily Lobo.  

“We’re looking forward to having an educational dialogue with the filmmakers about that and we’re also going to try to raise money for one of the families portrayed in one of the films,” McCarthy said.   

Leila Chapa contributed reporting to this article.

Paloma Chapa is the news editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on X @paloma_chapa88

---