Around 150 Dartmouth men and women joined in an emotional march through campus last night, chanting "Dartmouth unite, take back the night" to promote safety for women at night.
The fourth annual 'Take Back the Night' march, which is part of Sexual Assault Awareness Week, progressed through the center of campus, briefly walking down fraternity row, where many fraternity brothers watched from their windows and porches.
A number of students joined in on the march during its path toward the Green.
As the participants stood in a circle in the middle of the Green holding candles, victims, friends of victims and concerned students shared stories and poems about sexual assault.
Katie Koestner, a recent graduate of the College of William and Mary who spoke Wednesday night about her personal encounter with rape as part of SAAW, participated in the march.
"I will not be silenced ... I beg you not to be silenced either," Koestner cried out during the vigil.
Around a dozen students shared personal stories about sexual assault.
As students shared their stories, other students at the vigil broke down in tears and leaned on those around them for support.
Friends of survivors hugged and comforted them after they related stories of rape and feelings of insecurity and fear.
One woman started crying after relating her story of assault and screaming, "I'm angry! I'm damn angry!"
Another woman spoke out in public for the first time saying, "Like many of us, I have been too goddamn quiet for 12 years."
One student shared a story of a time she had sex against her will but questioned if it was rape because she did not resist. Other members in the circle immediately supported her yelling out that it was rape because she did not consent and was coerced into sexual intercourse.
Many men were present at the march and vigil to lend support to their female friends and share stories of their own.
One Dartmouth man spoke of his mother's rape at the age of 17, from which he was conceived. He said he was a passive victim of rape and had suffered throughout his life by being labeled as illegitimate.
English and Women Studies Professor Ivy Schweitzer opened the evening on the steps of Webster Hall with statistics of the number of women raped every year in the United States. She said 25 percent of 18 to 24 year-old women report to have been forced into having sex.
After speaking for about five minutes she said, "In the time that I've been speaking ... somebody has been raped."
She urged students to do something about the mind set of current culture. "Put your ideals and your ideas into action," she said.
Students offered many reasons for attending the march.
"I don't think the campus is unsafe at night," John Strayer '96 said. "I think people's attitudes are unsafe."
Ruth Morgan '96 said, "I'm here because I think that there are a lot of things that happen on campus with sexual assault with people not aware of what happens."
According to Liza Veto '94, the slogan for the march came from a march on a pornography stretch in San Francisco, Calif., to protest the portrayal of women in pornography. Veto is the assistant coordinator of sexual assault awareness programs and the organizer of SAAW.
