The University of Idaho Women’s Center is hosting this year’s Take Back the Night march with the Katy Benoit Safety Forum Thursday night.
The event will start with a speech from Erin Tomblin, personal injury attorney in Moscow and Vandal alum, titled “From Campus to Community: Your Voice Matters” at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14 in the Admin auditorium.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and the first 100 people to arrive will receive free T-shirts, Women’s Center Assistant Director for Programs, Bekah MillerMacPhee said.
Following Tomlin’s speech, they will commence marching in silence through campus, which students and community members polled in favor of over chants. Electric candles will be handed out to attendees for use during the march, MillerMacPhee said.
“We want to help people come together and make that statement that we really should feel safe wherever we go and whenever we go there,” Violence Prevention Programs Coordinator Emilie McLarnan said.
A speak out, facilitated by an advocate from Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse, will take place following the march in the Admin auditorium. Attendees are welcome to share how they’ve been affected by sexual or interpersonal violence in the presence of support groups, but MillerMacPhee stressed that there is no pressure to share.
The annual safety forum commemorates Katy Benoit, a student who suffered abuse from a UI professor after she ended their relationship and was shot and killed by him in 2011.
The forum serves as a reminder of the prevalence of sexual and interpersonal violence, McLarnan, who hosts the forum, said.
McLarnan said the safety forum will decorate the Katy Benoit memorial bench, located outside the Admin building, by asking people to place pebbles into a vase if they know someone affected by interpersonal violence.
MillerMacPhee said the Women’s Center hopes the event will raise awareness about the issue in the Moscow and UI community and educate students about survivor resources. While violence is perpetrated during the day, she said the event’s purpose is symbolic in nature.
“It’s really symbolic to taking back our spaces, our streets, our workplaces, our homes and not tolerating violence in those places,” MillerMacPhee said.
She encourages students to utilize the various resources for survivors, confidential or not.
Confidential resources include Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse, the UI Counseling and Testing Center, the Ombuds Office and Gritman Medical Center. Non-confidential resources, which commence investigatory proceedings, include the Dean of Students’ Vandal Care report system, the UI’s campus division of Moscow Police Officers and the Office of Civil Rights Investigation.
The Women’s Center received a federal grant through the Department of Justice for the Office of Violence Against Women September 2016, MillerMacPhee said. The grant helps to expand campus violence prevention programs and improve response to violence for UI affiliates.
Their focus is to better serve LGBTQA, multicultural, Native American and international students. They also hope to involve men in campus prevention programs, she said.
Women’s Center Social Media and Outreach Assistant and UI sophomore, Ramiro Vargas, said it was touching to see the campus come together at last years’ march. He said it’s important for men to educate themselves on the issue and to learn about ways to help.
“For me, being a feminist is being a decent person because you believe in equality,” he said.
Kyle Pfannenstiel can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @pfannyyy