Students 'Take Back the Night'

More than 100 students gathered on the Frist South Lawn on Friday night to raise awareness about sexual violence and show support for victims of sexual assault as part of the annual Take Back the Night (TBTN) vigil.

Katie Koestner, the keynote speaker, called on the crowd to “name the problem, shatter the silence and take a stand.” Koestner, who was raped in college, founded the Katie Koestner Initiative for a World Without Rape, hosted by Sexual Harassment/Assault Advising, Resources, and Education (SHARE) and Students Against Domestic Violence.

Koestner delivered a similar speech as part of TBTN in 2006.

Director of the Women’s Center Amada Sandoval GS ’00 explained that Princeton is no stranger to the issue, noting that Princeton’s “bucolic environment lulls us into a false sense of security.”

“There is probably a victim of sexual assault in every room [with] more than four people in it,” Sandoval said.

To complement several speakers, TBTN featured performances by the Roaring 20, Katherine Sanden ’09 and BodyHype. As the event drew to a close, SHARE president Mio Yanagisawa ’09 invited the audience to join her in a moment of reflection for victims of sexual violence. The crowd received candles, and a flame was passed from person to person in silence.

Koestner shared her personal story and explained how it motivates her life’s work.

In 1990, Koestner, then a freshman at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va., was raped by a male student after their first date.

Koestner decided not to keep the incident to herself. “At 18 I took a stand and went public with nothing but my voice for a cause I didn’t even want,” she said.

Koestner explained that she had met a wealthy, model-handsome man during orientation week. Over dinner at a French restaurant, he offered to take her to his island house in Greece that summer. Koestner had only two sips of champagne, and her date had two glasses.

The couple returned to Koestner’s dorm room afterwards. She repeatedly refused to have sex, and the man raped her.

“I bit a hole right through my cheek,” she said. “I think that’s why I wasn’t screaming.”

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After Koestner’s rapist was tried and convicted, a college dean said the two were a good couple and should “get over their tiff,” Koestner said.

The man was ordered not to return to her room. Her parents did not attend the trial, Koestner said, explaining that her father felt that she was partly responsible, and her mother said she should keep quiet or risk never finding a good husband.

Coverage of Koestner’s story began in a local newspaper, but before long she was featured on the cover of Time magazine. She has since spoken on Capitol Hill supporting the Campus Sexual Assault Victims’ Bill of Rights and in the National Mall before a crowd of 250,000 people.

“My story is just one of many,” Koestner said, urging the crowd to “accept the challenge” of activism. TBTN, a national movement with a presence on almost every college campus, has not always been well-received at Princeton. In 1999, an assault victim giving a speech was greeted with “the sounds of a pornographic movie blaring out of a window,” Sandoval said.

Despite the negativity or indifference of some students, SHARE member Lajhem Cambridge ’10 said that she and her peers are driven by the knowledge that “sexual assault is an underreported issue, and it’s important to speak up for people who have been through this, whether on campus or off.”

Class of 2010 president Connor Diemand-Yauman, who started the “Own What You Think” campaign to combat slander and libel, stressed the need for respect in the Princeton community in a speech.

“College is a strange time for many of us. We’re expected to learn and grow with one another ... yet every day people are maligned and disrespected by their classmates,” Diemand-Yauman said. “It boils down to looking into the eyes of another ... and seeing someone entirely detached and different from yourself.”

Yanagisawa called the event a “resounding success” and noted that more people have been participating every year.

“There are victims among us that are silenced and struggling alone,” she said. “TBTN is an event about compassion and support for victims, and it’s also ... a medium for reflection and, hopefully, in the end, change.”