About 30 Tufts students, most of them women, shivered together on the Tisch Library roof on Monday for Take Back the Night, a yearly event that raises awareness of sexual assault and domestic violence towards women.
Peggy Barrett, director of the Women's Center at Tufts, addressed the assembly first, noting her appreciation to see so many supporters. Barrett spoke about the gravity and scale of the issue at hand.
"People think we do [Take Back the Night] at Tufts because it is a big problem here," but violence against women "is actually a national epidemic," she said.
Participating students formed a circle and held candles, periodically stepping up to the microphone to share thoughts about the issues at hand. Some told personal stories or read poems.
"Even though we are just a small group here at Tufts, just remember that there are groups like this meeting at colleges all over the country," said one female junior." That's very important to remember."
A group of students then stepped forward to read police reports detailing incidents of domestic or sexual violence occurring in the Boston area last year.
Though the atmosphere was somber and the night dark, Barrett ended the ceremony on a positive note and encouraged students to come to the Women's Center if they had problems or needed somebody to talk to.
Take Back the Night was originally founded in England to protest and publicize women's fear at walking the streets at night. The first rally took place in San Francisco in 1978 and has been held annually ever since.
The program's current goal calls for "unifying women, men and children in an awareness of violence against women, children and families," according to the Web sites of several participating universities. The rally has occurred on the Tufts campus since the 1980s.
