The month of April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Take Back the Night is coming to campus April 10. Take Back the Night, is a program dedicated to creating a safe community and respectful relationships through awareness at Sikes Lake at 8 p.m.

Rachael Fornof, Title IX director said, “Take Back the Night started on college campuses in the late 80s, mostly for women, and they use the term take back the night because women couldn’t go out at night without fear of sexual assault.”

Fornof said this will be the first Take Back the Night event at Midwestern and her hope is to bring the college community together.

“These are events that college campuses can hold that create and ignite a passion into the prevention of sexual violence while also providing a safe space for survivors to exist,” Fornof said.

The event will consist of a 5K run, yoga, meditation, and a vigil walk through campus at the end of the night. There will also be snacks and T-shirts for the first people who arrive.

Fornof said, in the past year, university have tried to do a lot to show students they are aware of issues of sexual violence, and are committed to preventing acts of sexual violence.

“This is a chance to really celebrate the campus community coming together, supporting each other and providing a safe space for everyone,” Fornof said, “You know the person sitting next to you may or may not have experienced something before, but that doesn’t matter. We are all here for the same purpose.”

Fornof said she hopes people attending receive the feeling of support.

“One of the most important things is helping people feel supported. When survivors say why they didn’t make a report or made a late report, a lot of the reasons are they don’t feel supported in their community,” Fornof said.

Trevor Synder, mechanical and petroleum engineer junior and president of Kappa Alpha said their fraternity volunteered to work the event because bringing awareness is important.

“We all know what the event is put in place for. It’s a touchy subject but also a very real one, so bringing awareness to it is very important. It is just a little thing Greek life can do for the community,” Synder said.

Marina Candelaria, radiology senior said it is a great idea for the university to hold such important events like this.

“This topic is very important at this point in society we are at. There have been so many news reports about women and men being sexually assaulted that haven’t been handled the proper way, which makes it more difficult for people to come forward about what happened to them,” Candelaria said.