As part of the fall Week of Action, presented by the USC Student Government, a candlelit vigil was held in the Rutledge Chapel to honor and support victims of sexual assault.
It’s On Us, a nationwide campaign directed to stop sexual assault on college campuses, is co-directed on USC’s campus by Lindsay Bratun and Mary-Copeland Cain. As students walked into the chapel, they were presented with a candle and had the option to sign the It’s On Us pledge which states:
"I pledge to recognize that non-consensual sex is sexual assault, to identify situations in which sexual assault may occur, to intervene in situations in where consent has not or can not be given and to create an environment in which sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported."
Student government president Michael Parks, whose platform for running for president last year included preventing sexual assault, spoke at the vigil.
“When my term as student body president began, actually in this very chapel this past fall ... I was at a crossroads,” Parks said. “There are many initiatives to take on through the means of student government but one stuck out as the most poignant issue; sexual assault is an issue that permeates the lifestyles of both men and women of our campus and I felt that it was necessary to do everything in my power to make It’s On US a household name here at the University of South Carolina.”
USC President Dr. Harris Pastides also gave remarks.
“I want to be clear that we have no tolerance, not a little ... not an ounce of tolerance for sexual assault,” Pastides said. “This is a national problem and it is also a USC problem. Patricia and I were talking before the event and she said when she was in college some years ago, that it was a problem then. Why has this problem not gone away in the decades since she was a college student? Because we haven’t recognized it, because we tolerate it in our own way and so then when we make the pledge tonight, it is about you and I, but it’s also about our network and our web of friends and colleagues.”
Pastides then directed the next few words to the men in the room.
“I want to say particular to the men here tonight, it’s extra important that you take the pledge,” Pastides said. “If you see something, if you know something, even if you just think something, you need to stand up, stand up for Carolina, stand up for a person, you may be saving a life."
A group of students and parents read excerpts from Joe Biden’s Letter to the ‘Stanford Survivor’ before lighting the candles and having a moment of silence for those who were victims of sexual assault. Toward the end of the program, Bratun and Cain requested that the survivors in the room stand. Then they asked those who know a survivor of sexual assault to stand. By then, the whole room was on their feet.
“It’s on us, it’s on all of us and we can end sexual assault,” Cain said.
News Editor T. Michael Boddie contributed to the reporting of this story.