According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 63 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to police, only 12 percent of child sexual abuse is reported to authorities and out of every 1,000 rape cases, 994 perpetrators will walk free.

With rape being the most under-reported crime in the United States, Loyola and Tulane recognize the need to speak up for victims and give them a chance to speak up for themselves.

Since 1990, Loyola and Tulane, with participatiown from other New Orleans area universities, have led a Take Back the Night march. This year’s march was organized for Thursday at 6 p.m. The universities gathered in the horseshoe on Loyola’s main campus, where Tulane law student Margaret Martin addressed the crowd as keynote speaker, sharing her experience as a sexual assault survivor.

Event organizers opened the emotionally powerful evening with speakers who shared their personal stories of dealing with domestic violence, assault and rape. Following the keynote speaker, a candlelit march, beginning at Loyola on St. Charles Avenue and ending on Tulane’s campus, gave participants the opportunity to speak out against sexual violence.

According to Patricia Boyett, director of the Women’s Resource Center, this is one of the most important events pertaining to victims.

“When something like [sexual assault] happens to someone, certainly they are a victim, but they become a survivor,” Boyett said. “By taking power over how they’re going to respond to that and helping other people is a way of speaking out against it, which helps other people speak out, which makes people who are victims and survivors not feel alone.”

Boyett is more than just the director of the Women’s Resource Center and the Take Back the Night planner; she teaches the first-year seminar course “Gender, Justice and Violence” and is also a survivor of sexual assault.

In addition to focusing the night on survivors and their journeys, Take Back the Night hoped to attract allies.

Amber Crabb, political science freshman, was excited to attend and volunteer at her first Take Back the Night event.

“Even though I myself have never been a victim of sexual violence or rape, I still support the cause,” Crabb said. “I’m still an ally.”

Crabb said an ally is a person who promotes justice and consciously strives to end marginalization.

“I want to be more than a bystander,” she said. “I want to actively work against victim blaming and reduce rape culture.”

Through her passion for continuing to educate herself and others in the Loyola community, Crabb found she could support survivors by being a volunteer. She assisted the Take Back the Night event planners, sold event t-shirts and planned to pass out candle lights to marchers Thursday evening.

These actions may seem small, but Crabb believes they help survivors reclaim the night.