While Robyn’s attacker held her down to assault her, he was smirking at her “thinking it was pretty darn funny that I was trying to get away.”

Robyn and three other Northwestern students who have survived sexual assault and abuse shared their experiences with about 1,000 other students protesting violence against women at Thursday’s 15th annual Take Back the Night.

Chanting “Hey, ho, hey, ho, sexual assault has got to go” as they marched through campus, students showed support for the survivors, and for each other.

This year’s event included a march from the Sorority Quads along Sheridan Road and through the Fraternity Quads, with speakers at The Rock and outside the Technological Institute. An open-mic coffeehouse followed the march where students were able to share their thoughts and experiences.

Despite their difficulties coping with their experiences – until two weeks ago, Robyn hadn’t told even her closest friends – the speakers courageously identified themselves Thursday as survivors.

Taking ownership of an experience to move from the passive role of victim to the active role of survivor is important, Robyn said.

While each speaker told different stories, they all shared common themes. The most common message highlighted the necessity of speaking up about assault.

“If we all consider it important to break the silence, this will make it much easier for survivors to carry forward,” said the night’s first speaker, Leslie.

Another speaker, Mona, discussed how important speaking out is to the healing process.

“I wish I could have been as brave as the other girls,” she said. A member of the audience shouted out, “You are brave,” and the crowd erupted into applause.

Another important theme was how women should not deal with sexual assault alone. Many survivors tell themselves, “I need to get over this, I need to move on, I need to get on with my life,” said Katy, one of the speakers.

“It’s definitely not something you can just get over,” Robyn said.

Others described how their attempts to deal with their experiences alone resulted in problems such as eating disorders or difficulty developing relationships.

“I couldn’t be alone in the same room with anyone who was male, including the counselor,” Robyn said.

Finding people to talk to was also a problem, they said. Many of the women were afraid no one would believe them and were unwilling to tell their parents. Mona said her parents were too conservative and if they knew, she would never get to go out again.

Assaulted as a child, Katy spoke to her mother about the experience and said her mom “just sort of blankly stared and didn’t say a word.”

Some said they were told by law enforcement officials that they had no grounds for a case: lack of physical evidence, passage of time since the assault, under-age drinking, or failure to ask for a condom.

Asking for a condom is equivalent to consent, they added.

Northwestern’s Take Back the Night is one of the largest such events in the country, regularly drawing crowds of more than 1,000 people.

Women’s Coalition and other student groups co-sponsored the event.

“I was really impressed that people stuck with us,” said Kathryn Monroe, the event’s co-chairwoman and a former Daily staffer, adding that she expected the crowd to dwindle as the march went on.

NU is unique because men march with women – on many campuses they march behind women, or not at all.