 "Photo: Dana Kuhn")
As a national organization, Take Back the Night asserts a woman's right to walk alone at night without fear. As a University group, the Take Back the Night committee has commenced on a new way to fight fear-working alongside fraternity members from Alpha Epsilon Pi and Beta Theta Pi.
The Take Back the Night (TBTN) committee first thought about inviting the fraternities to participate when they heard about the alcohol ban on Frat Row. Intrigued by the historic relationship between women and fraternity members, senior Debra Silberschatz, one of the committee's chairs, believed this year provided the perfect opportunity to solicit the participation of the 13 University fraternities.
"It has always been seen as 'us vs. them,'" said Silberschatz. "But just because the institution has a stigma doesn't mean they're not affected. We realized that there is no better time to include them."
Silberschatz also stressed that while women have higher percentages of being victims of night crimes, it is not their issue alone. She cited the reality of violence on campus-particularly the recent muggings and break-ins at Lopata Hall and off-campus apartments-as a reason men should also participate.
Alpha Epsilon Pi and Beta Theta Pi were the two fraternities to accept the TBTN committee's invitations.
"Working with the fraternities has been fun and invigorating for the Take Back the Night committee," said Silberschatz.
Since deciding to participate, members from Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) and Beta Theta Pi (Beta) have been working with the TBTN committee. Their first collaborative event will be on Feb. 27, when the fraternities will help cut out and paint silhouettes containing anonymous feelings and experiences about night violence at Washington University. While the cutouts will most likely be placed in Bowles Plaza, each fraternity member will have his own cutout to post on his house.
Fraternity brothers are helping with the planning of the event and marching with the women. In past marches held at the University, only women have walked while men participated in a dialogue held simultaneously. This year, the TBTN committee stresses that anyone who feels comfortable marching should be able to do so.
In the past, there have been 100-200 marchers, but with the participation of the fraternities, the committee hopes to raise this number to 300. The event will be held on March 23.
Junior Eli Zimmerman, president of AEPi, said that his fraternity became involved because of the issues that TBTN addresses.
"We decided to participate because we felt like this was an important cause. It is a great way to increase campus awareness, and we are really excited," said Zimmerman.
Andy Dowdle, president of Beta, believed in the extreme need for men to be involved in the event and to work towards preventing violence against both women and men.
"I think 'frat boys' are typically perceived by women as being sexist and discriminatory. Ideally, on campus we are 'fraternity men,' and we must support women's rights passionately and not look past it," said Dowdle.
Dowdle noted that the responsibility of defending women's rights extends beyond fraternity row to the entire campus.
"People on campus have to take the issue of women feeling comfortable [seriously] and play a role in the change," said Dowdle. "There is a definite problem with men not respecting women, and women not realizing that violence is not okay. We definitely want to support a growing awareness of this issue on campus."
