In response to reports of two sexual assaults over the weekend, some students and members of the University community are taking matters into their own hands by staging a protest and hosting forums for discussion about the issue.
Freshman Alessandra Colaianni spearheaded today's "scream-in" protest, scheduled to take place on the Chapel steps at 2:15 p.m., in the hopes of spurring community members to action before memory of the reported assaults fades away.
"The idea behind the scream-in is to make this problem on campus audible as well as visible--[it's] symbolic of the screams you don't hear of women who are sexually assaulted on campus," Colaianni said.
In response to complaints of a lack of information about the incidents, Edens Quadrangle Residence Coordinator David Montag has planned two open forum discussions to take place at 9:15 and 10:15 tonight in the fifth floor of McClendon Tower. He said representatives from the Duke University Police Department, Residence Life and Housing Services, Counseling and Psychological Services, Sexual Assault Support Services and the Office of Student Affairs would all be available to answer students' questions about the incidents and the University's current safety policy.
"There was some feedback that I've received directly from students who wanted to have a forum in which to discuss concerns, and they wanted to see something done in terms of administrative action," he said. "They were asking me a lot of questions I didn't have answers to.... Especially because it happened around the Edens area, it's something that I thought needed to be done."
The protest and open forums will give students the opportunity to air their concerns and seek information about efforts to improve safety on campus, but the reports of two sexual assaults in such close proximity have still left many students feeling vulnerable.
"I think that a lot of the women who attend Duke feel invincible, and I know that most of my friends walk from place to place without a care in the world," freshman Jenny Feldman said. "Hearing about an attack on women who are similar to our age, who go to the same school, who go to the same parties, who are essentially similar targets makes the whole idea more of a personal concern."
Such expressions of insecurity were part of the force behind the "scream-in," Colaianni said, and she hopes the protest will encourage further discussion between students and administrators about the issue.
"I was outraged and felt like something more needed to be done," she added. "Timeliness was of the essence. You usually get a lot of outrage right after the event and then things peter out, so that's why I acted quickly."
Seyward Darby contributed to this article.
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