By Christian Tufino
Title IX, with the help of Crafts for a Cause and Omega Phi Beta, provided support for survivors of sexual assault and spread awareness of sexual assault prevention at its Take Back the Night event through food, community activities and a walk on the Saranac Trail on April 30.
Title IX is a campus resource that provides support and education to prevent and assist in instances of sex discrimination, harassment and violence on campus. It serves all students and faculty, and the Take Back the Night serves to show their support for sexual assault victims not just for an event, but at all times.
Information tables were set up by the fire pit in the Angell College Center Courtyard. The stands offered resources for people in need or for those who want to learn more about what help is available for them on campus and in the greater community.
Emily Stanley, certified rape crisis counselor involved with sexual assault services on campus, manned one of the tables, providing students the chance to meet face-to-face with someone who’d be available to help in a crisis.
“We have a hotline for people who are in need of services and there’s someone on call 24/7, even if they just need someone to speak to,” Stanley said.
In addition to the hotline, campus has many resources students might not know about for dealing with crisis situations.
“We do counseling, we can also go with people in they need to go get a forensic rape exam or go to the court or police,” Stanley said. “We just want to be here to show our support.”
The event hosted light-hearted activities and treats as well prior to the walk. Tables filled with brownies, s’mores, hot cocoa and chips lined the back walls near the entrance next to the market. Crafts for a Cause provided materials to make affirmation bracelets and provided shirts people to wear.
Erin Noel, Crafts for a Cause member, said she enjoyed working with Title IX and Omega Phi Beta to bring awareness to an important issue.
“I think it’s a great cause and I’m happy to be co-oping with a new group on campus, and I feel like it’s important to bring awareness to the topic as well as bring people together for an important cause,” Noel said.
Kim Irland, Title IX coordinator, worked closely with student organizations for this years Take Back the Night event to bring a sense of power to the students.
“We really wanted to engage students in the development of the event and create a sense of ownership around this being students taking back the night,” Irland said.
After around half an hour of people showing up for the event they were gathered around the fire pit to hear a speech given by Maiah Vega-Reyes, Omega Phi Beta president.
In her speech she told of the origins of the event, which started in 1975 because of an assault on a woman walking home alone that led to other women marching the streets chanting “take back the night.” This served as a moment for women to reclaim their right to live free from fear and take back the space they were forced out of by predators.
Everyone in attendance was handed blank pieces of paper that they wrote negative thoughts on. They took those pieces of paper and threw them in the fire pit as a symbol of letting go of negativity.
After the burning ceremony, the attendees gathered near the stairs entering the ACC where the 1.3 mile walk around the Saranac Trail would start.
