To the Syracuse University Community:

As the Vera House White Ribbon Campaign came to a close, and National Sexual Assault Awareness Month has begun, I wanted to take a moment today to express our appreciation to the Syracuse University community for your tremendous support of the White Ribbon Campaign and your incredibly powerful Take Back the Night event on March 31. I know it has been a difficult year as the university seeks to re-define its response to sexual assault after so many years of extraordinary work by the former Advocacy Center. We will always remain grateful for the vision, dedication and passion of the staff and volunteers of the Advocacy Center.

This year’s SU White Ribbon Campaign and Take Back the Night event were inspiring for all of us. SU has been supporting the White Ribbon Campaign for many years. Under the leadership of former Dean Barry Wells, SU’s campaign went from a fairly small campaign to our single largest campaign. We were thrilled to learn that Wells is back on campus as a Special Assistant to the Chancellor. Wells’ successors, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Wolfe and Dean Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz continued support of the campaign. This year’s White Ribbon team went above and beyond under the leadership of Bridget Yule, Denise Dowdall, Paul Ang and Ashlee Newman. Pete Sala, Keith Kobland, Megan Dietz, Shannon Feeney Andre, Jill Sneider and Kim Brown played critical roles in the campaign’s success. White ribbons were distributed at every dome gate at the final home game for the men’s basketball game, and the message of the White Ribbon Campaign, to never support, commit or remain silent about abuse, was shared widely across the campus. The hundreds who attended this week’s Take Back the Night event reinforced this message by marching, shouting and then silently bearing witness to the agonizing truths of survivor after survivor.

Coupled with this broad campus support, Chancellor Kent Syverud disseminated strong messages about both the White Ribbon Campaign and Take Back the Night and re-committed himself to moving the campus forward on these issues. We look forward to working with the chancellor and other dedicated individuals across campus to facilitate implementation of the Chancellor’s Work Group’s suggestions. We are committed to partnering with Syracuse University to ensure that every survivor of relationship violence or sexual assault on campus receives the services they deserve and that prevention efforts help us to build a culture of non-violence, safety and respect across campus.

Thank you,
Randi K. Bregman, LMSW
Executive Director
Vera House, Inc.