A global tradition took on a local form at MSU Friday, Feb. 11. Organizers, student organizations and participating students turned out for Take Back the Night, an event dedicated to raising awareness about sexual violence. 

Laura Hetrick, Title IX director and one of the coordinators of the event, said the event covers a wide variety of sexual assault- and harrassment-related issues.

“It’s basically really focused on topics that relate to Title IX issues. So sexual assault, harrassment, stalking, domestic violence, dating violence, anything along that line. And our goal is to kind of work with students and help them know how to identify this and what resources are available on campus, if they’re experiencing or they know someone who’s experiencing any of these issues,” Hetrick said.

Take Back the Night events date back over 60 years, including marches and rallies across both the United States and the world. Early iterations of the event started as protests against violence committed against women. As the name implies, Take Back the Night events began with the goal of making the night safer for women. Now, the event is more proactive and educates students on ways to protect themselves and identify issues in advance.

Biology junior Sydney MacDonald attended the event, and said she felt it was important to inform students on how to keep themselves safe, both physically and emotionally.

“I think it’s valuable because it helps people, it opens their eyes to the situations that they’re currently in that they might not recognize. Like you might be in a relationship and think it’s healthy, but then you come here and it highlights that if you’re not communicating well or if your significant other always has to have your location or is calling you always, that might not be healthy. And so then it can help you form a healthier relationship from what you’re currently in or get out of a bad situation before it gets worse,” MacDonald said.

Another attendee of the event, computer science graduate student Chad Callendar, said the educational aspect of the event is especially important for college students and young adults.

“It definitely brings awareness to like, sexual assault and you know, like, domestic violence to like, young adults. Because that’s very important for us just going into the world in a few years. So this kind of puts that all into perspective and shows you that, oh, it’s more prevalent than you really think, so I think that’s really good for that,” Callendar said.

Accounting sophomore Matthew Pruyne manned a table specializing in self-defense education at the event, one of several educational stations set up. 

Pruyne said the event offered a great opportunity for students to socialize and have fun while learning about an important topic.

“This event is amazing. Like it is massive, it gets everybody involved. It teaches so many different things. It gets people involved, like, socially, it gets new friend groups happening, it gets people just trying to mingle together. In my case, it’s self defense, they learn how to defend themselves. They have many, several other stations to where they can learn about new groups, learn about new organizations like your sororities, your fraternities. It’s just overall a great social event,” Pruyne said.

Nursing sophomore Kaylee Johnson echoed the same sentiment, and said the event had the appeal of a college gathering while still covering heavy topics.

“I think it’s important for college students especially to have some type of awareness against sexual assault. And I think sometimes it can all be really heavy and kind of a downer, but like to have like a fun event I think that’s important to spread the word, spread awareness. Especially for, you know, a younger audience,” Johnson said.