On Thursday evening, a marching mass of students, faculty, and Middletown residents, large discussion circles, and a candlelit Andrus Field marked the annual Take Back the Night (TBTN) rally. TBTN Planning Committee members continued the traditional focus on female victims and the University’s focus on student-of-color victims, while pursuing greater inclusion of male and queer students.
Initiated in 1978 in San Francisco, TBTN aims to raise awareness about sexual violence and to gather in support of assault survivors. College campuses nationwide mark the rally once yearly.
“[The first TBTN rally] was women-and children-specific,” said student organizer Cori Philips ’08. “Our event aims to give every survivor a voice. The goal is to make every day and every night safe for everyone.”
Phillips marks this as her second year as a core organizer of TBTN.
“It’s an issue that’s always been important to me,” she said. “The more I was involved [in TBTN], the more I wanted to be involved.”
The program culminated on Thursday with a rally in front of Olin Library, a march throughout campus, and speak-out circles dispersed throughout the march.
“I think the important thing for students in general around this issue is, first, don’t hesitate to ask questions, and to not just rely on an event like Take Back the Night to address the issue,” said Director of Health Education Lisa Currie. “Keep awareness high. Things should be going on throughout the year.”
Currie has been involved in TBTN for the past several years, participating in the collaboration between the Health Services Department, particularly WesWELL and the TBTN Planning Committee. WesWELL is run by the Office of Health Education division and student volunteers. It aims to foster good health of mind, spirit, and body on campus. “WesWELL’s participation has increased in Take Back the Night for years,” Currie said.
Traditionally, during speak-outs, students read narratives submitted anonymously by assault survivors within the University. Last year, the TBTN planning committee received one submission. This year, they received none. Phillips remains optimistic.
“Hopefully, people will have a lot to say and there won’t be any lack of conversation,” she said of the speak-out circles.
The group marched from Olin to the lawn in front of North College, to the Center for the Arts courtyard, and finally to Andrus Field. It closed with a candlelight vigil, during which each attendee held a candle, counted off to determine how many people were in attendance, and extinguished the candles. Phillips said that the vigil serves to draw importance to attendance, despite lower turnouts in recent years.
“[We count off] to see that the numbers are important,” she said.
This year, around 200 to 300 students attended the beginning of the event, with 91 at the time of the count. Last year, about 250 participants marched for TBTN. Currie said that she remembers previous marches with up to 800 participants.
Previous TBTN programs have included a Students of Color Pre-Forum, designed to facilitate conversation amongst participants about the impacts that sexual assault has on their particular community. This year, organizers introduced two additional pre-forums: one for male and the other for queer students.
“We’re trying to make Take Back the Night more inclusive of all groups,” Phillips said.
The Students of Color Pre-Forum began five years ago, when WesWELL Peer Health Advocates expressed concern about that community’s weak presence in TBTN.
“They felt that there really wasn’t enough participation of students of color in the march,” said Currie.
The forum successfully increased student of color participation levels. This year, student organizers hoped to accomplish a similar increase in male and queer participation.
“There are other populations here we need to be concerned about, both from a preventative standpoint and from a supportive standpoint,” Currie said.
This year’s results, however, were not as successful as those for the first Student of Color Pre-Forum. Neither the Male Pre-Forum nor the Queer Pre-Forum saw any attendees. Benacerraf ’08, who facilitated the Male Pre-Forum, said that a number of reasons may have contributed to the poor turnout.
“I think it may have been confusing about who was invited in the male community,” Benacerraf said. “And it was at a bad time.”
“I feel like it will take a while to actually get results,” Phillips said of the new focus on male and queer victims.
Immediately following the candlelight vigil, student facilitators held debriefing sessions around campus, in which participants discussed and processed what they had encountered during the march and speakout circles. Two all-student sessions took place in the Fauver Frosh and Hewitt lounges. A session limited to female-identified and transgendered students took place in the Butt B lounge. Phillips said that, despite the importance of recognizing sexual assault victims of all identities, it is necessary to allot some attention exclusively to female victims.
“There is a disproportionate number of attacks against women,” she said.
A Friends of Survivors Post-Forum will take place on Oct. 20, in which friends and partners of victims may learn more about how to best support assaulted loved ones. TBTN organizers decided to add the post-forum in order to continue dialogue after the program culminates with the march.
“People’s awareness levels drop fairly quickly after learning important information,” Currie said.
Pre-march TBTN events have been in action throughout October. To prepare for the University’s second year of participation in the Clothesline Project (CLP), blank white flags were available through Oct. 6 in front of the Davenport Campus Center and MoCon and from RAs. Participants, victims of sexual assault and supporters of victims alike, designed the flags anonymously with images, quotations, statistics, or testimonies. Flags were hung on a clothesline and displayed in the Zelnick Pavilion during the week of Oct. 9. The display hung outside of Olin on Thursday.
Originally designated for female victims only, the University’s branch of CLP is open to all students. Colleges nationwide participate in the CLP either as an independent event or, like the University, in conjunction with TBTN.
On Monday, Oct. 9, WesWELL’s Peer Health Advocates sponsored a workshop to echo TBTN themes. “Supporting Survivors of Sexual Assault and Domestic Abuse” was an open event during which facilitators taught support techniques to participants and explored what questions are important to ask a victim.
“[Sexual assault] affects all of the community,” Phillips said. “People always think that it’s removed from where you are. It is not, and it doesn’t affect only one group.”
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