Take Back the Night (TBTN), a "glow walk" across campus to raise awareness about community sexual assault, took place on Nov. 1 on the Academic Quad.
The event stems from the national TBTN organization, with similar events taking place on campuses and in communities across the country, according to Jennifer Shi, director of programming on Tufts Panhellenic Council.
This year, Tufts was one of ten schools chosen as a “point of light” by the national TBTN organization,Shi, a sophomore, said. This means that the Tufts TBTN event will be highlighted by the national organization and publicized across the country.
Sexual Misconduct Prevention Specialist Alexandra Donovan said that she was approached by the national TBTN organization, which asked her if Tufts would like to be a point of light.
"With sexual misconduct prevention, there are so many different voices that need to be heard, and I very much respect ASAP [Action Against Sexual Assault Prevention] and the Consent Culture Network's programming around It Happens Here that happens in the spring, in April," she said. "I wanted to give another group a chance to also have a voice on campus and to do something in prevention work, so I approached Panhellenic."
According to Shi, Tufts Panhellenic Council organized the event throughout the semester. In the past, Shi said, TBTN has occurred at Tufts as a candlelight vigil in Goddard Chapel, but it was changed this year to a glow walk across campus. The walk started on the Academic Quad and continued across the campus, ending with a reception at 51 Winthrop St.
“This year, we wanted to put on a more uplifting and empowering event … We really wanted to open up this conversation to people interested in engaging in it,” Shi said.
At the event itself, students were given glow sticks and glowing balloons to wear and carry. Jenny Lu, who serves as director of community outreach for Tufts Panhellenic Council,welcomed students to the event.
"Our Take Back the Night glow walk was further founded on the principles of ownership, awareness and action. The idea is really accountability for everything we do," Lu, a senior, said to the crowd.
In the lead up to TBTN, a smaller event called #ShatterTheSilence was held from Oct. 18 to Oct. 20. The event was a photo-taking campaign aimed at publicizing TBTN and raising awareness in a visible way on campus, Shi said.
“We think this is a really good way to engage people and also to inform people that this is … an actual issue we should all be focusing on and addressing,” Shi said.
Lu, who helped organize the event along with Shi, said that during the #ShatterTheSilence campaign, she was frequently asked, "What is the silence?"
Lu said that people may want to start dialogues about sexual violence but do not have the language to do so.
“Though these conversations are happening on campus … there are a lot of spaces where this conversation isn’t being had, and people are dangerously silent. And that’s what we mean,” Lu said.
After the glow walk, participants had the opportunity to sign a pledge stating that they will support survivors, educate themselves, always ask for consent and "join the conversation and raise awareness about these issues in order to help break the silence surrounding sexual assault on campus."
"People may want to engage in the subject, but they don't have the language to do so. Of course, it's very important that you first have to learn the language, and that's part of the pledge," Lu said.
According to Lu, the event was aimed at inclusivity and creating dialogues.
“The most important thing to us is respecting survivors, respecting their stories, being sensitive to their needs and understanding that we are not speaking for them, and that this event, though it is in support of survivors, is for the larger community. It’s to open up this conversation to spaces where it has been silent,” she said.
Take Back the Night aims to facilitate conversation surrounding sexual violence
