‘Take Back the Night’ offers awareness about sexual assault, campus culture

College of Communication alumna Allison Francis said she saw “Take Back the Night” as an opportunity to raise awareness about sexual assault issues.

“All my roommates and very many of my friends are students here, and I’m concerned about how sexual assaults have been handled and how there is a lack of awareness,” she said. “I want to be a part of raising awareness and change everyone in the community to make it better for survivors.”

Francis is one of more than 200 students, alumni and Boston locals who gathered at the Boston University Beach Friday night for “Take Back the Night,” a rally against sexual violence led by the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism.

Guess speaker Megan Andelloux, a sexologist, sexuality educator and author, started off “Take Back the Night” by speaking about when she was raped at 17 and how it affects her life now.

“I wanted to start by telling you about the orgasm I had earlier this week.” Andelloux said. “It was a brief second of delightful, but then – and almost the instant the orgasmic sound came out of my mouth – another wave passed through me, a wave of shame and guilt.”

Andelloux, a rape victim who was blamed for her assault, said people made comments about her job, clothes and make up, among other things. One of Andelloux’s friends said to “just deal with it” when she had told her story.

After the guest speakers spoke, the crowd broke up in to smaller groups lead by volunteers from the CGSA to share their thoughts and personal stories of sexual assault.

The groups got back together to start their march down Bay State Road that looped around onto Commonwealth Avenue carrying signs that read “sexist, racist, anti-queer, you cannot make us live in fear” and “Hey hey! Ho ho! Rape culture has got to go!”

After the march, attendees reconvened on the beach for a dance party and performance by groups such as the BosTones, an a cappella group at BU.

The rally, hosted by the Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism, took place after a series of reports of sexual assaults. The CGSA worked with the South Campus Residence Hall Association, the Women’s, Gender and Sexuality program at BU and the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center to help garner support.

“Take Back the Night” also received support from Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore and President Robert Brown.

In an email sent to students, Brown suggested students attend to learn about and help improve safety on campus.

“This ‘Take Back the Night’ rally comes at a time of understandably heightened concern about sexual assault,” Brown stated in the email. “It is my hope that this event will contribute both to greater safety and security and will also heighten awareness of how we all can help ensure that safety and security.”

A number of sororities and fraternities at BU attended. Jill Goldfarb, the vice president of philanthropy for Alpha Epsilon Phi, said it was important for her sorority to come to the rally because they want women to feel safe and comfortable around campus.

“All you can hope is that they can help promote and get the message out there that it is not good to hurt someone of take advantage of anyone.” Goldfarb said.

COM sophomore Andrew Weaver, a volunteer at the center who helped in the planning of “Take Back the Night,” said that the rally would help in changing the rape culture at BU and other college campuses.

“We are hoping that we can raise more awareness about the prevalence sexual assault on campus,” said Weaver. “Just because the numbers that are reported by BUPD each year are low does not mean that sexual assault and rape on campus is not a problem.”

Adam Dibattista, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, said “Take Back the Night” helped raise questions about how prevalent recent incidents and rape culture is on campus.

“With the incident with the two hockey players, I think there has never been a more important time [to discuss] how cognizant of what rape culture is and how destructive it is to our campus,” she said.