Raising awareness

Candles flickered in the cool September breeze as emotional eyes watched the somber speaker paying verbal homage to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and rape.

On Tuesday, the 22nd annual Take Back the Night brought students and faculty together to raise awareness about violence and rape.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a student on IU’s campus who hasn’t heard of the event. Despite its well-known status, the group huddled at the corner of Dunn Meadow was intimate and small.

It appears that, like many other well-meaning campus events, this one was eclipsed by midterm exams and research projects. That, however, does not mean that limited participation did not accomplish their goal – raising awareness.

While it is unfortunate that more students couldn’t take time out of their schedules to attend Take Back the Night, the yearly presence of everything that surrounds it – sidewalk chalk, newspaper articles, countless announcements – is a reminder for those unable or unwilling to make an appearance that rape and violence are ever present in our small-town community.

The creation of the Sexual Assault Response Team earlier this year is a great step toward combating this problem.

“Although the Office for Women’s Affairs has always worked diligently to provide education about sexual assault and its prevention on our campus as well as in the broader Bloomington community, our efforts are enhanced by the presence of SART, which includes a vital community-based law enforcement component,” Yvette M. Alex-Assensoh, dean of the OWA, said.

Events like Take Back the Night make forward motion similar to the creation of SART a concern for more students who hear and read about it – even if they aren’t physically present.