LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV) - UA Little Rock is in the middle of a fight against sexual assault, and Wed., April 18th, faculty and students pledged to take back the night.
Take Back the Night is an international movement to bring awareness to physical and sexual violence.
“Our main goal was to start this dialogue,” said Dr. Tusty ten Bensel, an assistant professor in the university’s Department of Criminal Justice, “and let victims—in our campus and in our community—know that, if you need help, there is help, and there are people willing to hear your stories, and do what they can to help you move forward.”
She and other members of the Department of Criminal Justice hosted a Take Back the Night event Wed.
It included representatives from more than a dozen community agencies, campus organizations and local police departments. They all shared with attendees the services they can provide to victims and friends and victims.
“Even if you’re not a victim, just getting educated about what kind of services there are, and that there are services there to help you in different things,” ten Bensel said, “I think that’s huge.”
A couple of rape victims spoke to the crowd of more than 100 to share their stories. They were emotional, and graphic at times about what they experienced, but the stories captured the brutality of the crime, as well as the strength in surviving and speaking.
“It’s an underreported crime, on college campuses and in generalization for the state,” stated Natalie Snow, a doctoral student and co-organizer of the event. “So, what we hope to do is to let people know it’s okay to come forward, and it’s okay to stand up and say ‘no’ to violence.”
Data is limited at best about the incidences of sexual assault at UA Little Rock. A study authored by a professor at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville found that 31 percent of female students claimed to be victims of sexual assault since arriving at the university. Twenty percent did not tell anyone about the assault, and not a single respondent said they told either campus police or Fayetteville police.
“The topic is very taboo. People are afraid of coming forward because of shame and stigma, and also being victim-blamed,” Snow said. “That creates a culture that, we don’t really speak up and say that this is not okay.”
To encourage that point, organizers had students walk the talk. Carrying glow sticks and battery-powered candles, dozens marched through campus, chanting and demanding an end to sexual assault.
Research shows that more than 90 percent of college students who have been sexually assaulted do not report the attack.
To change a culture that allows that, Snow said she hopes this event is the beginning of something much bigger.
“This will be the first of many that we will be continuing over the years,” she claimed. “And, hopefully, not just for here at UA Little Rock, but other college campuses throughout the state.”
“I want them to educate themselves on how to protect themselves,” ten Bensel added. “I want them to educate themselves on what consent is, that sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking--those are no longer, those are not going to be accepted in our community any longer.”
Aside from being educational, the event also served as a fundraiser for Partners Against Trafficking Humans, a local non-profit that assists trafficking victims and fights trafficking.
Several companies—including Plunge Digital, FC Data Services, Compass Marketing, ten Bensel Marketing, Candlewood Suites in Hot Springs, Laura’s Draperies and Blinds, Keller Williams, and ADS Data Direct—sponsored the event.
With additional donations from attendees, ten Bensel said more than $5,000 had been collected before the start of the event, surpassing her goal.