Syracuse students afraid to walk campus streets alone at night are invited to stash their pepper spray tonight in protest and demand an end to violence.

Take Back the Night, an international event designed to protest all forms of violence and educate about how to end it, will begin tonight at 6:30 in Hendricks Chapel. It will include several different events, including a march around campus and a speak-out.

‘We’re trying to get the whole community to help raise awareness that it’s not just a women’s issue,’ said Chelsea Carter, co-chair of the event and junior history major. ‘We’re getting everyone involved, men too.’

In years past, SU’s Take Back the Night focused on sexual violence, but this year coordinators decided to extend the focus to ending all violence, said Janet Epstein, director of RAPE Crisis Center.

‘We’re asking the community to really look at what are the steps we can take to counteract violence,’ Epstein said.

The Clothesline Project T-shirt making session, organized by the Office of Residence Life, will kick off the night’s events at 5:30 p.m. in the Noble Room of Hendricks Chapel.

Within the international project, victims of sexual violence, their friends and family, and concerned citizens decorate T-shirts to illustrate their thoughts or emotions about the effects of sexual violence.

The T-shirts will be displayed within the next two weeks in the Schine Student Center to visually prove the prevalence and seriousness of sexual violence, Carter said.

Then all the Take Back the Night march participants will meet at 6:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel for a welcome at 7 p.m., and then begin marching around campus to Marshall Street, then Walnut Street and back to the Chapel.

Following the march, participants will gather in Hendricks for a speak-out, with SU community speakers and an open forum, Carter said. Speakers include a member of A Men’s Issue, an organization promoting male responsibility in preventing violence against women.

Many organizations contributed to the night’s events, including the Team Against Bias and the Office of Residence Life.

‘It’s so clear that the issues are really important to this, and people are really stepping up to make a statement,’ Epstein said.

Volunteers and staff members of the RAPE Center tabled in Schine Tuesday to educate visitors about sexual violence and invited them all to make a paint handprint on posters as a pledge to help end it.

‘We want to make people more aware that we don’t tolerate violence and rally the Syracuse community to show our support,’ said Amy Houley, a volunteer at the RAPE Center and a freshman biology major.

Take Back the Night originated as a way for women to protest the danger of walking alone at night and reclaim their safety.

‘It’s about women empowering themselves and feeling safe to go out at night,’ said Laura Stafford, a receptionist at the RAPE Crisis Center. ‘It encourages them to be confident and push their limits.’

Published on April 13, 2004 at 12:00 pm