Take Back The Night supports survivors’ healing journeys, advocates for awareness
Take Back The Night is an international sexual violence prevention movement that dates back to the 1970s. Every year, SU hosts its own TBTN event as part of Sexual Assault Prevention Month. Solange Jain | Photo Editor
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T-shirts reading “I’m a survivor” and “Violence is not a love language” hung in a colorful display as around 100 people gathered in Syracuse University’s Schine Student Center Panasci Lounge for Thursday night’s Take Back The Night event, an annual campus gathering to raise awareness about sexual violence.
Take Back The Night provides a space for students to seek support and encourage advocacy against rape culture. The international movement, which began in the 1970s, supports survivors throughout their healing with marches, rallies and campus events.
Attendees said the event fostered a community for survivors and their support systems. This year’s gathering featured campus clubs and organizations that offered crafts, letter writing, safety kits and information about resources on and off campus. Citrus Dolls, SU’s majorette team, also performed.
“This event brings people together,” said Chelsea Thompson, an event coordinator for SU’s chapter of Planned Parenthood Generation Action. “When you’re assaulted, you feel so alone, and this just lets you know that you’re really not.”
Thompson said she came to TBTN to inform students about the services Planned Parenthood provides for people who have experienced sexual violence and abuse. She said speaking about these experiences can be challenging, so she brought her emotional support cat, Jellybean, to the event to comfort attendees.
Solange Jain | Photo Editor
Throughout programming, participants worked on crafts, letter writing, safety kits and information about survivor resources on and off campus. Citrus Dolls, SU’s majorette team, also performed.
Nasya Bellard, an SU sophomore, said she was drawn to the event for its comforting environment. She emphasized the importance of recognizing survivors and ensuring no one feels overlooked. While stringing pink and green beads into a bracelet, she said this message is especially urgent in current times, given President Donald Trump’s record of sexual assault allegations.
“When we have a political leader (who) himself has committed several sexual assaults, it reinforces the message that a certain behavior is okay and it’s not,” Bellard, a political science major, said. “Regardless of financial status, regardless of political status, regardless of political side or agenda.”
Through troubling times and experiences, Hendricks Chapel Dean Brian Konkol encouraged attendees to reflect on someone who’s helped them get to where they are today. He emphasized the importance of hope, describing it as a habit rather than a passive feeling.
“The organizers of Take Back the Night have taught me that hope is an active thing, because hope is the conviction that what we do matters,” Konkol said. “Hope is the conviction that what we do matters, what we think matters, how we treat people matters, how we speak our truth matters.”
Katha Strenk, a freshman majoring in innovation, society and technology, echoed Konkol’s message, saying the event reminded participants of the power of community. Strenk said she knew she wanted to be involved the moment she learned about the event and went on to help plan it for nearly three months.
She said the collaboration between the participating organizations reflected the night’s goal of uniting the campus community.
“Just knowing what a prevalent topic this is, especially being a woman and being away from home, I wanted to find community and help those people who need it,” Strenk said. “Everyone, whether directly or indirectly, is affected by this.”
Solange Jain | Photo Editor
Hendricks Chapel Dean Brian Konkol encouraged attendees to remember the importance of hope and described it as a habit rather than a passive feeling. He said TBTN embodies hope in the community it builds.
Virginia Evans, a therapist with the Barnes Center at The Arch’s Counseling center, has been involved with TBTN for over five years. This year, she said herself and other staff members made a deliberate effort to shift leadership back to the students.
“We’re really trying to get back to finding out what the students want,” Evans said. “Making it less of a prevention-oriented movement, more towards supporting survivors in all of those stages of healing.”
TBTN began as a campus march at SU, but evolved into an indoor event in 2024 as students became more involved in shaping the event’s structure. Evans said the different format helps students feel safe being vocal about their experiences.
At the end of the night, survivors and allies came together for a private discussion to share their own stories and experiences with sexual violence. Bellard said although the night was emotional, it’s important to understand the reality of survivors’ lived experiences.
“Campus should be a comfortable, safe environment and events like these really reinforce that,” Bellard said. “Where people of different backgrounds, of different organizations, are coming together to reinforce this cause, that’s what campus is for, it’s what college is about.”
