Wearing stickers that read, “No more curfews,” and carrying signs bearing messages such as, “I’m not afraid,” students filled the EMU Amphitheater on Tuesday afternoon to speak out about a woman’s right to be safe.
Student organizers of the “No More Curfews on Campus” rally wore an eclectic assortment of brightly colored clothing and called themselves “radical cheerleaders,” leading the 100-plus crowd in cheers between speakers from campus groups.
“It’s nobody else’s right to steal my body,” they chanted. “It’s nobody else’s right to steal my night.”
Junior Lezlie Frye said she began planning the rally with three other women, also University students, in response to an attempted rape of a woman behind the Knight Library two weeks ago.
Once they started organizing the rally, other students wanted to get involved as well, she said.
Nikki Fancher, co-director of Project Saferide, and Michelle Manoguerra, community education program coordinator for Sexual Assault Support Services, were among speakers at the rally.
Fancher said University administrators should stop denying that women are at risk on campus and do more to protect women against assault and sexual violence.
“The administration needs to know that women need to be safe,” she said. “We need to make our demands heard.”
Following the rally, organizers led the crowd on a march down 13th Avenue, stopping at Johnson Hall. Marchers then walked through the building, and continued toward the Knight Library, ending the march behind the library, where the last attack on campus took place.
During the rally, organizers polled students in the amphitheater about campus safety issues, and what they would like to see changed, Frye said. She said they would decide what step to take next based on responses from students.
Senior Frankie Cohen, who attended the rally, said the event let women’s voices be heard, and could pave the way for change.
“It lets people know that we’re not just going to sit here and be quiet … and that there are people who are willing to take a stand, ” she said.