A throng of students chanting “5, 6, 7, 8, no more violence no more hate,” could be seen and heard marching through campus on Wednesday, April 17. The march, which began in Old West’s Memorial Hall, was one of the final components of Dickinson’s annual Take Back the Night event.
“We started planning this event at the end of last semester and have been planning all of this semester,” explained Colleen Berger ’13, who organized the event. “We also needed to…contact speakers, including a keynote speaker, agency representatives, spoken word poets, and student and administration representative[s].”
The demonstration began on Wednesday, April 17 with an introduction including statistics about the prevalence of sexual assault. Among these statistics were the facts that one in three women over 18 years old are raped at some point in their lives, and 90 percent of them know the rapist. Ninety-five percent of college students do not report rape.
“[This is] a call to action,” said Anne Brown Ebert, program director at YWCA Carlisle. “It is time to say no more to rape; we’ve had enough.We need to tear down the myths and build up the facts.”
The keynote speaker, Kate Rush Cook, gave her personal account as a victim of sexual violence. Although Cook is “frustrated by a legal system which assumes women’s clothing and actions are to blame,” she also offered tips to find a solution.
“We can speak up about the issue and we can intervene as bystanders,” said Cook. “This is an issue which can affect you regardless of age, gender, sexual orientation and so on. We simply cannot turn our backs anymore. No means no and silence does not mean consent.”
At the end of the night, participants walked throughout campus shouting the slogans which were given to them at the beginning of this event. Among these phrases were “Wherever we go, however we dress, no means no and yes means yes!” and “Claim our bodies, claim our right, take a stand, take back the night!”
“By marching through campus with our voices yelling out, we are proclaiming that the violence will not be tolerated in our community and that we will work to stop it,” explained Berger.
Students who participated were happy with the turnout.
“I was impressed by the number of people who came, including the number of men,” said Megan Murphy ’15. “It’s encouraging to see how many people support such an important issue.”
The organizers were also pleased with the event.
“[This shows me] how incredible this campus is and how strong we are,” said Berger. “There are people who truly care about each other in this community.”
