Take Back the Night is a national event that empowers women and en-courages students to speak out against sexual harassment and abuse. This past Thursday, April 5, The Network, a Center for Outreach, Volunteerism and Education (COVE) group that raises awareness about sexual assault and domestic violence, organized an event at the Jug.

“[Take Back the Night] is an ef-fort to host a fun nighttime event where women are the ones running the show,” the group wrote on the Facebook page for the event.

A speak-out on Monday followed the event. About 35 students marched from Frank Dining Hall to the corner of Broad Street and College Street, through Case Library and finally up to the Coop. They chanted things like “Two-four-six-eight, no more date rape” and “Sexist, rapists, anti-gay, don’t you take our night away.”

The group paused at various spots around campus to read statis-tics, hear a personal story or listen to an article written about sexual abuse.

According to the Campus Climate Life Survey that Colgate published in 2009, 75 percent of women have ex-perienced sexual harassment while 45 percent have been sexually assaulted. The cases that are brought to light and to the administration do not reflect the statistics. Only a handful – the number floats around ten or below – of cases are actually reported, which suggests either that women are un-comfortable reporting cases of sexual abuse or do not even see it as such.

Contact Thomas Hedges at [email protected].