When Lyzanne Trevino was a sophomore, she forgot her keys coming home from a friend’s room after a party. When two unfamiliar, apparently drunk male students called down from a window and offered to let her in, she accepted. They led her onto her floor’s stairwell but demanded that she “thank them,” she said. Their price? Her body. One guarded the hallway while the other sexually assaulted her until she managed to call her roommate and flee.
“I wanted to crawl out of my skin,” Trevino said. “I wanted to cry. I wanted to leave Northwestern.”
Trevino stayed, joining Sexual Health and Assault Peer Educators and graduating from NU to tell her story at Thursday’s rally for Take Back the Night, an international movement that seeks to break the silence on sexual assault.
More than 50 NU students braved cold, windy weather to attend Take Back the Night, an event sponsored by College Feminists. The night was the culmination a weeklong series of events, including screenings of documentaries and panel discussions on sexual violence and trafficking.. The event began at 5:30 p.m. with a barbeque at the Women’s Center and was followed by a rally at the Rock, a march through campus and a survivor speak-out at Dittmar Gallery.
“When I got to college, I gained an understanding that sexual assault was a prevalent occurrence on college campuses,” said Communication senior Emily Scherker, co-chair of the Take Back the Night Committee. “I realized that there are a lot of myths about it that really distorted the way it looks, so that a lot of people don’t even realize sexual assault until way after it happens. It made me angry and it made me want to take action.”
Seventeen student groups supported the event. A cappella groups Extreme Measures and Significant Others performed at the rally, and fraternities and sororities displayed banners they painted for the march as part of a competition to win condoms.
“I think it’s a fantastic message,” said Will Ritter, a Weinberg freshman and member of Sigma Chi. “The Greek community needs to feel like they can stand up against sexual assault and violence against women. It’s something that can definitely be promoted more.”
One in every four college women and one in 31 men are sexually assaulted, Trevino said during her speech. In fact, she said two of her friends – one male and one female – were also sexually assaulted at NU.
“I thought it was really touching and visceral to hear an actual account of it,” Bienen senior Chelsea Keaton said after hearing Trevino’s story. “I feel really safe on campus, but it’s a message to be even more safe and not let my friends be put in that position too.”
Scherker said she believes more effective sexual education could help reduce the frequency of such violence.
“People don’t really know what consent looks like, so people that commit assault often aren’t these evil, anonymous people in alleys,” she said. “They’re people on college campuses who just haven’t been taught the importance of an enthusiastic ‘yes.'”
Medill sophomore Cristina Arreola, a member of SHAPE, agreed.
“People don’t necessarily know what sexual violence constitutes and where the line is drawn between consent and not consent,” she said. “I think it’s important in terms of education so people can start thinking about what sexual violence means in their own lives.”
This year, Take Back the Night benefits Porchlight Counseling Services, an Evanston center for college sexual assault survivors. Scherker said the majority of the event’s funding will go to Porchlight.
“We like that they’re local because we really want to be trying to change our community,” Scherker said. “Ultimately it’s a national movement in that we’re all united in trying to raise this issue, but we’re marching around campus, we’re trying to take back these streets so that we all feel safe walking on them.”
At the march, members of the Take Back the Night Committee led participants through NU and Evanston, chanting and holding the Greek banners. Weinberg sophomore Jaclyn Mauch, who has attended Take Back the Night for the past two years, said “it was cool to see people actually stand up for something.” However, she said the speak-out, during which survivors and anyone wishing to express themselves talked about their experiences, was the most eye-opening and emotional part of the night.
“It was really supportive and empowering,” Mauch said. “I have a really good friend at a different school who was raped, and you just think about it happening. It happens underneath the covers, so people don’t think about it.”
