The ring of a gong signified the donation of $12,000 to Emerge! Center Against Domestic Abuse from the UA’s Intrafraternity Council at a presentation ceremony on Tuesday afternoon.

After Council President Trevor Cohen presented the check, he was embraced by Kimberly Thompson, the center’s vice president of philanthropy.

“We’re thrilled to be able to do this,” said Cohen after the ceremony.

The donation is a portion of the $30 recruitment fees collected at the beginning of the fall semester, and amounts to $2,000 more than what was donated from last fall’s recruitment. Cohen attributes the additional money to an increase in students participating in fall recruitment. This year, 1,060 students registered, up from the typical 700 students.

The partnership between the council and the center began March 22, 2011, with the signing of a resolution outlining the motives and intentions behind the partnership. According to the document, the partnership was started in response to the high rate of rape and sexual assault and other violent domestic crimes that occur on college campuses. The goal of the partnership is to provide assistance to the center in the form of donations and resources, while the center provides education and awareness about domestic violence to UA students.

Emerge! was formed in 2008, and provides services to domestic violence victims such as temporary shelter, long-term housing, intervention, counseling and educational programs, according to the center’s website.

Though the center assists domestic abuse victims in multiple ways, the money donated by the council will go specifically to a new program that the center will be starting Oct. 1 to help house domestic abuse victims who would be unsafe at home, according to Thompson.

“When people are in shelter, they’re still homeless,” she said. “If they don’t have a place to go after the shelter, they’re homeless again, or they might have to go back to the abuser and it puts them back in a violent situation. We try to get them into their own safe home and then wrap our services around them … so they can put down roots, so they can put their kids in school.”

Although the donation is the most significant component of the partnership, the collaboration between the council and the center extends beyond once-a-year donations, as Emerge! provides a variety of educational programs and events for fraternities on campus, according to Jeremy Zilmer, intrafraternity council adviser. Events can range from meeting and talking about services to discussing domestic violence.

“There are numerous ways that they educate, [and] that’s part of the partnership,” Zilmer said. “They always have events where they need volunteers, so … our fraternities will help them with different events that they need assistance with.”