Take Back the Night will take place at 8 p.m. Thursday in the Agricultural Science auditorium, room 106.
Although the event is no longer required for Greek students, Lysa Salsbury, Women’s Center program coordinator and Take Back the Night committee member, hopes attendance will still be significant.
“I’m hoping that because of the violence that occurred at the beginning of the semester it will add a particular significance,” Salsbury said. “I’m hoping people will want to come to honor those who died because of the violence.”
The event will begin with a keynote address from Elizabeth Brandt, associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of Law and law professor James Rogers. The address will be followed by a silent, candlelit march focusing on the fact that every two minutes a women is sexually assaulted in the United States.
Violence against women may be the focal point, but Salsbury said she feels it has become about more than that.
“It has expanded its scope to include the LBGT (lesbian bisexual gay transgender) community or violence that occurs from racial or ethnic discrimination, which makes it really more important,” Salsbury said. “It shows that we want diversity on our campus. I hope people would want to be a part of something that is bigger than themselves.”
Take Back the Night began at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in 1976 in Belgium. It has spread globally and happens on almost every college campus in the U.S.
“This is going one step further and saying that we don’t agree with violence on our campus,” Salsbury said. “Our access to social media is so widespread that people can push a button to sign a petition or like a cause, but people can go out and march, taking protest activism back to its grassroots. I think that’s an important part of the college experience as well.”