Syracuse University community members gathered in Hendricks Chapel Friday for SU Rising, an evening to bring awareness to sexual and relationship violence while remembering and supporting victims.

SU Rising featured remarks and performances by organizations including Students Advocating for Sexual Safety and Empowerment, SU Zinda Fusion Dance Team, A Men’s Issue and the SU Counseling Center and the Office of Health Promotion. The event concluded with a candlelight vigil and moment of silence.

About 50 students, faculty and staff attended the event, which began with remarks by Tiffany Steinwert, dean of Hendricks Chapel.

Steinwert welcomed the audience to an evening of healing, morality and light. She encouraged the community to stand and join together in dismantling sexual and relationship violence at SU and around the world.

“You are it. We are it,” Steinwert said. ”We are the agents of change. It’s on us.”

Tula Goenka, a Newhouse professor and SASSE faculty adviser, then spoke about the history of SU Rising, thanking and honoring Janet Epstein and the former advocacy center staff who established the event in 2013.

Goenka said that though the last few months have been difficult at SU, SU Rising is “a moment of feeling, continuing and moving on.”

Members of SASSE performed a monologue written by Eve Ensler on the Delhi rape case which inspired Ensler to begin the One Billion Rising movement that SU Rising is based on.

Amy Quichiz, SASSE vice president and a sophomore women and gender studies and sociology dual major, said that it was important to attend the event to fight for women and individual empowerment.

“We need be powerful individually so that we can better stand together to bring awareness to these issues,” Quichiz said.

Counseling center representatives attended the event to provide information regarding their free, confidential services for victims of sexual and relationship violence.

Carrie Brown, a member of the counseling center’s sexual and relationship violence response team, said that it was inspiring to see the campus community come together to bring attention to what can be difficult issues for many to discuss.

Matt Fox, a sophomore engineering and computer science major and a member of A Men’s Issue, said that attending SU Rising was an eye-opening experience.

“After hearing these stories, hearing women speak about horrible things that have happened to them, you begin to realize that all of these actions were committed by men,” Fox said. “You can’t help but see that something needs to change.”

The event ended with audience members standing in a circle inside the chapel to light their candles and hold a moment of silence to remember and honor victims.

“In this moment of healing and hope, we bring light to this issue,” said Steinwert. “We can see the light we create and the difference we make when we’re standing together.”

Published on February 13, 2015 at 9:03 pm

Contact Lydia: lawilson@syr.edu