Last year, an estimated 200 students stood outside Kane Hall in the pouring rain and pounding wind to listen to testimonies of their fellow students during the "Take Back the Night Rally," one of the scheduled events during Sexual Assault and Relationship Violence Awareness (SARVA) Week. Despite the inclement weather, students stayed, and the open mic night went on for over an hour.

Tonight, this annual event, sponsored by ASUW Committee Organizing Rape Education (CORE), will be moved to the HUB Auditorium. CORE Director Angelena Crown hopes this will give even more students the opportunity to attend and participate in this forum open to the whole student body.

She also hopes this event will serve as a venue in which students can listen and speak out against sexual assault and relationship violence that occurs in the community.

"This is the one time of the year where the university community can come together and create a safe place to recognize survivors of sexual assault and violence," Crown said.

The rally will feature keynote speakers Jennifer Self, director of the Q Center, and KIRO 7 news anchor, Margo Myers.

Following their speech will be an opportunity for anyone to share a personal story about violence they've heard about or encountered firsthand.

For Sam E. Al-Khoury, ASUW director of Community Relations, listening to some of the personal testimonies last year was a "heart-wrenching experience."

"I don't have any personal experience with the issues covered under the 'Take Back the Night Rally' or SARVA week, but what made them very real to me was the open mic session of last year's event, where people that I know really well — I thought I knew very well ... left my side to talk about their experience with these issues," Al-Khoury said.

"These people are where they are because they've survived the issues they've faced ... and to talk about that in a safe place will hopefully let others be more cognizant of these issues so they won't have to face the same thing that my friends did."

Al-Khoury believes this year's rally will be even more poignant because of Monday's domestic abuse tragedy that claimed the life of staff member Rebecca Griego at the hands of her ex-boyfriend.

"What happened to Griego on Monday proves we can't ignore sexual assault and relationship violence issues 51 weeks out of the year because it's constantly happening, happening close to home, and bad things do happen when people don't understand and aren't willing to react to problems," he said.

Crown said special arrangements are being made to honor Griego at the rally, in either the form of a candle light vigil or moment of silence.

Also in light of events, members of the staff from the counseling center will be present before and after the rally to help students deal with their grief.

"When an event happens, it can often bring a resurgence of the types of bad fears and thoughts," Crown said. "Even if [people say] they've "gotten over it,"[Griego's death] can trigger a lot of bad memories."

Reach reporter Erin Hicks at news@thedaily.washington.edu.