Every student on campus most likely knows someone or has dealt personally with sexual assault, domestic harassment, or some sort of violence within dating. It’s what makes communal college events so integral, and what makes April, sexual assault awareness month, something to be spoken about.
Every student on the Ammerman Campus should have gotten a survey in their inbox– a glaring and recurring email reading: “SUNY Sexual Violence Prevalence (SVP) Campus Climate Survey.” Important to the campus, the survey aims to collect data directly from students on sexual and interpersonal violence and policies/resources per campus.
The survey was a quick way to make a difference, but some go above and beyond. Danielle DiMauro is a Suffolk County Community College professor with an impressively humanitarian resume; Faculty Advisor of the History & Women’s Club, History and College Seminar Professor on the Grant Campus, and Chair of the Take Back the Night Planning Committee. The idea for her involvement began in 2017, “My [College Seminar Service-Learning course] students were doing an awareness campaign on dating and domestic violence and came across this event,” she wrote. “This event was originally founded in the 2000’s at the Ammerman [campus] and we decided to reignite this at Grant, hosting our first one in 2018.”
Every April, the college and local community joins together to empower and console those impacted by sexual assault awareness month and further educate those choosing to be involved.
This year, Take Back the Night invited Laura Mullen to speak. Mullen is described as a “lived Experience Expert” from ECLI/VIBES, a victim service agency working with those who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and abuse.
Take Back the Night, first and foremost, is for allyship. Trauma can be isolating, but it can also formulate a community of understanding. SCCC plans this yearly event months in advance, all three campuses working together. DiMauro describes activities such as table bonding sessions, designing shirts and lanterns (which are placed throughout the walking route), butterfly designing, and sharing sources and stories.
All of this leads up to the walk, which took place on Thursday, April 10th. This march against violence was not the first and will not be the last. The hard work put into this event paid off for so many in the community.
Everyone can make a difference– even you! If you haven’t taken the survey distributed yet: http://www.suny.edu/survey/take/svpstudent?sr_k=31fc6cx34zkv12qvgw4m81m7q04ld24rw33d2rjm29fzgk1z29z6r2j5bgfp9pd6
Instagram: @takebackthenightsccc
ECLI/Vibes Hopeline: (631) 360- 3608
