By Day GreenbergThe Daily Northwestern
About 60 Northwestern students braved the cold and wind to attend Thursday night’s Take Back the Night, a drastic decrease from last year’s estimate of 200 to 300 students.
“You preach to the choir when you do things like this,” said event co-chair Rupali Sharma. “It surprises me (that) people at Northwestern aren’t as enraged – there could be more exposure.”
The Weinberg senior said she was a little disappointed about the turnout but added that it was also 30 degrees colder than last year.
“Only the best feminists come out in this crappy weather,” said Take Back the Night co-chair Ashley Keyser, a Medill sophomore.
The event, which has taken place around the country since 1978, allows students to voice their opposition of violence toward women and to support victims of sexual assault and harassment.
Hosted by College Feminists, Take Back the Night started with a rally at The Rock at 6:30 p.m., where participants heard from speakers and learned chants that they then blasted throughout campus.
The march ended at Norris University Center, where students made use of an open microphone to tell personal stories, give support to the crowd or just speak their minds.
School of Communication sophomore Karin Magary said she attended to show her support for her roommate, outgoing College Feminists president Katie Wright.
“There’s like 8,000 undergraduates here … and there’s like, what, 60 people here?” Magary said. “It should be something more people come to. We need to encourage more people to stand behind this because it affects everyone. Not that this wasn’t powerful, but more awareness and more voices can’t hurt.”
Many students walking past the group stayed to listen to speakers, and residents of Bobb Hall reported hearing marchers’ voices chanting outside their windows. NU sororities hosted tailgates earlier Thursday to promote the event, but many of these were moved inside due to the weather.
Rachelle Faroul, a Communication senior, said even though there weren’t many people, those who did show up were more knowledgeable about the issues and were passionate about Take Back the Night’s mission.
“I was honestly quite shocked about how many people spoke up,” Sharma said. “It takes a lot of courage, and you can see that each person up there was focused on getting people to understand some of the issues.”
Sharma said that she resents the lack of outrage about the issues of sexual assault and harrassment on campus and in the U.S. in general.
“It’s not surprising to read about in the newspaper, and it should be surprising,” she said. “People say things like ‘my final raped me’ – it’s not like people who say that are misogynistic, but something that occurs that often, people can’t be desensitized about it.”
Weinberg senior Jessica Williamson said she didn’t used to go to “events like this,” but she said that in the last year or two, “a number of my friends have had experiences.”
“I decided to go as I realized it’s not just silly feminists, but it’s a real issue,” Williamson said.
Sharma said she has faith that the students who attended the event will now become more active in the fight against violence, sexual assault and harassment toward women.
“I think women have a low bar for what they expect of people,” Sharma said. “Women need to set that bar higher and really demand to be treated equally.”
Reach Day Greenberg at [email protected].
