A group of volunteers are doing everything in their power to make women feel safer during that midnight walk home.

“Take Back the Night,” an event focused on educating community members of the realities, dangers and survival stories of sexual violence, will take place at universities throughout the nation and locally at 7 p.m. tonight in Hendricks Chapel.

The goal of the event is to create a “safe space” for victims of sexual assault to tell their stories, said Abby Kalicka, a senior public relations major and co-coordinator of the event. It should also help to raise awareness of sexual violence in general and more specifically within the university.

“Sexual violence is a scary thing, and so often, people just choose to ignore it,” Kalicka said. “‘Take Back the Night’ says that we’re not going to ignore it, and we’re not going to tolerate it.”

Speakers from the Syracuse Rape Crisis Center will begin the event, speaking to the audience about their encounters with sexual violence. The speakers will detail the reasons why sexual violence remains an issue that society needs to face, Kalicka said. The speakers will then give up the stage to The Mandarins, Syracuse University’s all-female a cappella group. After a rally and march around campus, participants will enjoy refreshments and participate in a “media-free speak-out” to share their thoughts or experiences of sexual violence.

According to the U.S Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education Web site, SU reported 45 forcible assaults, including rape, on the campus in 2001. Jen Daly, a senior interior design major and event co-coordinator, said that these statistics prove that rape on campus is a serious problem in need of attention.

“It’s one more reason why it’s really important to have this event,” Daly said. “All of these things are happening all around us, every day. We need to raise awareness and prevent further violence.”

Coordinators are especially hoping that some men decide to turn out for the event.

“Sexual violence is something that affects everyone, not just women,” Janet Epstein, sexual assault response coordinator of the SU Rape Center, a co-sponsor of the event. “Every man has women in his life, whether they’re a mother, sister, girlfriend, wife, niece or colleague. Men who aren’t even violent can be feared because there’s always a concern about sexual assault.”

The event, which will take place at colleges throughout the country, ran for many years at SU but had died out by 2000, when Kalicka and Daly were freshmen.

“We sort of had to restart it,” Kalicka said.

Coordinators and sponsors have been planning the event since last fall. The Rape Center, the Department of Public Safety and the programming council of the Division of Student Affairs provided some funding, marketing, tabling and support for the event, Epstein said.

Kalicka said that she is nervous that the celebration for the basketball team at 7:30 p.m. in the Carrier Dome may take a bite out of attendance at “Take Back the Night.”

“We can’t change the date or the time at this point now that we’ve already done all the publicity,” Kalicka said. “I just really hope people come.”

Published on April 9, 2003 at 12:00 pm