The Take Back the Night march continued its mission of raising awareness about sexual violence, empowering sexual assault survivors, and ending gender-based violence in our community for the 19th consecutive year on campus Wednesday, Oct. 27.
Various groups in the metropolitan area such as Loyola, Tulane, Xavier, NOPD and others, united to march down St. Charles Avenue and Broadway Street. The program then lead participants to the Myra Clare Rogers Memorial Chapel on Tulane’s campus, where audience members spoke of their past personal experiences.
The event closed with a chant led by Tulane’s Ladies A Capella group and an interfaith service.
“It’s a powerful event that can really inspire girls to leave an abusive relationship. I think everyone should attend,” said Yvette Naniuzeyi, mass communication junior and Maroon staff writer.
Free Take Back the Night t-shirts were distributed to participants who signed a pledge to not contribute to behavior that condones sexual violence. For the $5 donation, students and faculty were given a teal ribbon, which was worn with jeans, as an anti-sexual assault symbol.
Brooks Zitzmann, Loyola staff counselor, said the event is an important step in efforts to decrease the number of sexual assaults that are reported yearly as well as the incidents that aren’t reported.
“(Take Back the Night) clearly sends the message in a powerful way that gender-based violence is unacceptable and that our community is wiling to take action to end such violence,” Zitzmann said.
According to LUPD’s Clery Act Annual Security Report, the number of reported sexual assaults has diminished since 2008. Unfortunately, this does not give an accurate account of the sexual assaults in the Loyola University area because research shows that sexual assaults are greatly underreported, Zitzmann said.
Take Back the Night is not the only event to help sexual assault survivors on Loyola’s campus. LUPD, the Women’s Resource Center, the University Counseling Center and the Office of Co-Curricular Activities all offer a range of aids for sexual assault survivors, and programs to stop sexual assault before it begins.
Loyola’s faculty is also currently creating an Advocates Initiative. This program will educate and train the Loyola community on how to respond to sexual assault survivors and how to access other resources in the New Orleans community.
Prior to Take Back the Night, several activities led up to the event. Special boxes were set up in the Danna Student Center where students were encouraged to write down their experiences with sexual violence on index cards and drop them in the box. The cards can also be mailed to the Loyola University Counseling Center. The cards were displayed in the Danna Student Center leading up to the march.
Yvonne Cappel-Vickery can be reached at [email protected]
