Multicolored shirts whipped like flags in the cold wind Wednesday outside Beaumont Tower, but the message they conveyed was colder still.
Close to 200 shirts were displayed as part of "The Clothesline Project" to honor victims of sexual abuse. The shirts bore hand-printed personal accounts of abuse and sexual violence experienced by their creators.
The project was displayed as part of the "Take Back the Night" activities on campus to honor Sexual Assault Awareness Month. The shirts were color coded to reflect the different forms of sexual abuse reported. For instance, pink and red shirts on the line stood for someone who had been harassed, stalked or sexually assaulted and blue and green shirts represented incest or child sexual abuse survivors.
Lauren Drolet is a crisis and sexual assault counselor at The Listening Ear Crisis Intervention Center in East Lansing, which helped coordinate the night's activities. She said the night was a chance for women to claim freedom from the fear of sexual abuse.
"Rape does happen; it happens locally," said Drolet, a 2003 MSU graduate. "This event is to end the shame and silence survivors go through."
The Listening Ear is a 24-hour crisis center, which deals with everything from sexual assault to depression and loneliness, Drolet said.
While working at the center, Drolet takes as many as 500 calls a month. Of those, she said about 30 percent are related to sexual assault. She said the shirts help connect people to the victims on a personal level.
"People can look at statistics and not really see what they mean," Drolet said. "People see this and realize 'This is someone's life.'"
Center employees were on hand to give out information about sexual assault awareness and prevention. According to pamphlets handed out by center employees at the event, 74 percent of rape victims know their assailants, and one out of every two victims are under 18 years old.
The MSU Department of Police and Public Safety said five criminal sexual conduct cases were reported in 2003. There were 13 reported sexual assaults on campus this school year. One of those was falsified.
After 6 p.m. a group of about seven female MSU students went to Beaumont Tower as part of a vigil. Those in the group held small candles in remembrance of female victims of sexual violence.
"It's very emotional," Drolet said. "It's a moving experience to see all the pain in the community."
Carolyn Gorski, an urban and regional planning junior, joined in the vigil. Gorski, who said she has friends who were sexually assaulted, said the event helped shed light on the subject.
"It's an issue with a terrible stigma," Gorski said. "(Rape) is rampant on campuses, and it goes unreported for fear of social reputation."
Gorski said rape is an issue many people think does not affect them.
"They think it is easier to sweep it under the rug," Gorski said. "Events like this are important to draw attention to it."
Angela Rogers, a family community services senior, also works at Listening Ear. She said it was important for people to understand there are many myths that surround sexual assault.
Some of the myths that are prevalent on a college campuses, Rogers said, are that if a woman is drunk an assault is her fault, or she was asking to be assaulted because of the clothes she was wearing.
"There is nothing anyone has ever done to ask for rape," Rogers said.
Throughout the event, Rogers watched people approach the clothesline and quickly walk away after they realized what it was about. She said those actions revealed some of the reasons people don't speak about sexual assault.
"It's easy to get freaked out and walk away when you see all the women's lives that have been affected," Rogers said. "Most people don't want to hear about it, but I think we need to speak out because it happens, and it shouldn't, and it can't be silenced."
Josh Jarman can be reached at jarmanjo@msu.edu
