This article contains discussions of sexual violence.
Tuesday, Oct. 6, the College of William and Mary Student Assembly and Someone You Know organized a vigil on the Sunken Garden steps to support survivors of sexual violence. SYK is a student-led organization focused on sexual and gender-based violence prevention and peer education.
The vigil coincided with national attention surrounding the ongoing sexual assault case at Cornell University and campus concerns about the College’s recent crime alerts.
The event consisted of survivor testimonies, perspectives on sexual violence, resources and a moment of silence for those impacted by sexual or gender-based violence. Attendees could light a candle to honor survivors.
The event opened with Student Assembly Vice President Sophie Kennedy ’27 providing a trigger warning and land acknowledgement.
“We are angry and saddened over what has happened at Cornell to Jane Doe and saddened that violence continues on college campuses across the country, including our own,” Kennedy said.
She emphasized the necessity of supporting survivors.
“To survivors with us today, we stand with you, we believe you and we know that what happened to you was never your fault,” Kennedy said. “We light this flame in recognition of every J. Doe, every survivor of sexual and gender-based violence.”
Attendees then lit their candle using someone else’s flame.
“Each time the flame passes from one person to another, we remember that no survivor should ever have to carry their experience alone,” Kennedy said.
Lydia-Louise Merritt ’27, vice president of SYK, gave an overview of the Clery Act and information on the College’s recent crime alert emails.
“The Timely Warnings are being shared with the intention of raising awareness of campus crimes so that we can work together to counter violence through preventative education and general awareness,” Merritt said. “I want to express that the implementation of our Timely Warnings does not necessarily indicate an uptick in campus crime.”
Yasmin Kudrati-Plummer ’27, Student Assembly undersecretary of university policy and student rights, then shared a testament poem titled “I am Jane Doe.”
“How many more people have to become a Jane Doe for something to change? How many more of us need to speak out before our voices will start to matter? When will enough be enough? I am Jane Doe,” Kudrati-Plummer said.
Ava Garrett ’28, SYK public relations chair, also shared a poem addressed to Jane Doe at Cornell and all survivors.
“To those who have had to watch their perpetrator walk away while they are left to carry the weight of what happened, we hear you, we believe you and we are so angry for you,” she said.
Maya Sakai Chen ’29 led a moment of silence and sang a rendition of “Rise Up” by Andra Day.
The moment of silence lasted 98 seconds due to a Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network report that states someone in the United States is sexually assaulted every 98 seconds.
After the moment of silence and song, Yui Yamada, international fellow for the Japanese language house, provided a global perspective on what she described as a “systematic web of violence” extending beyond the United States.
“I decided to stand up here with anger against the news that came up on my phone three days ago about an incident in my home country,” Yamada said about a 39-year-old woman in Okinawa who was allegedly killed by a U.S. Marine.
“Instead of being shocked, I had the feeling that I had almost gotten used to it,” she said. “It happened again.”
She shared how Okinawa is a small island in Japan with Indigenous people, accommodating around 70% of exclusive-use U.S. military facilities in the entire country. Sexual violence occurs often on these bases, according to Yamada, and the military typically apologizes.
“But that’s it. That’s it,” Yamada said. “The names of Jane Doe can travel beyond the Pacific Ocean and connect us as a trans-Pacific feminist coalition. I am Jane Doe, and ‘Watashiwa Jane Doe’ in Japanese.”
Assistant Director of Health Promotion and Sexual Violence Prevention Specialist Candice Fox spoke on refusing to normalize behavior that can cause harm.
Senior Director for Gender-Based Violence Resources and Advocacy Services at the College Liz Cascone also touched on the history of sexual violence on college campuses over the year and the advocacy that has emerged from those events.
“What is happening at Cornell is not an isolated moment,” she said.
Cascone reflected on her own exposure to collegiate sexual violence as a sophomore at Virginia Tech approximately 30 years ago when Christy Brzonkala alleged that two football players sexually assaulted her, with one eventually found responsible by the school.
“She carried her fight all the way to the Supreme Court,” Cascone said.
Cascone connected the Cornell case to a broader history of survivors advocating for institutional accountability and systemic change.
She named Emma Sulkowicz’s mattress-carrying protest at Columbia University and the over 150 testimonies of survivors of former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar.
She mentioned the case of Chanel Miller at Stanford University, which sparked national outrage because her perpetrator, Brock Turner, received a six-month sentence in county jail when prosecutors asked for a six-year state prison term. Turner only served three months of the six-month sentence due to good behavior and was released from county jail on Sept. 2, 2016. He also received three years of probation.
“The painful truth is that we have been having this conversation for decades, and now we are here again,” Cascone said.
She urged the campus community to foster an environment where students feel safe.
“Every person deserves to walk into a classroom, a residence hall, a party, a fraternity house or any other space knowing, ‘I am safe here, I am respected here, my boundaries matter here, my body belongs to me,’” Cascone said.
Student Assembly Secretary of University Policy and Student Rights and event organizer Georgia Horgan ’27 then closed the event, sharing resources and thanking the audience for attending.
Vanessa Wiederhold ’28, an attendee, shared her thoughts on the event.
“It’s just so powerful when we can all be in one space and respect and acknowledge those stories [from surviors],” she said.
Erin Reiley ’27, Student Assembly secretary of health and safety and SYK president, said planning for the vigil began approximately one week before the event.
According to Horgan, one of the event organizers, Kudrati-Plummer initially proposed a demonstration to the University Policy and Student Rights department. Horgan said the idea developed into a silent vigil and that she involved Reiley to ensure SYK was part of the planning process.
Reiley emphasized Student Assembly’s role in helping organize the vigil.
“Student Assembly is our student government and a lot of students just generally really look up to these people and look to them when things are going on,” she said. “I think it shows that William and Mary as an institution is a place where survivors are supported and sexual and gender-based violence is not tolerated.”
Reiley said she has observed a shift in how students engage with conversations about sexual and gender-based violence since she joined SYK her first year at the College.
She pointed to several recent developments over the years that have brought sexual violence into the national conversation, including the second Trump administration, the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein and the Cornell case. Reiley said the increased attention does not necessarily mean sexual violence is occurring more frequently but that more people seem willing to discuss the issue and advocate for change.
“I think we are kind of shifting and seeing a shift where people are standing up and saying these things are not acceptable,” she said. “It’s not acceptable for us to live in a society and in a culture where these things are permitted and people don’t receive support when it happens to them and people who perpetrate these acts don’t receive any consequences.”
Reiley said administrators’ presence at the vigil showed that students cared about the issue.
Reiley said she hopes the vigil will remind students that sexual violence remains an issue even when individual cases are not receiving widespread media attention. She stressed that survivors may be members of the campus community whom students encounter in their daily lives, including classmates and residence hall neighbors.
“Just because you’re not hearing about something doesn’t mean it’s not happening,” she said. “I want people to remember the image of everybody standing there [at the vigil] with their candles and knowing that survivors at William and Mary are supported and that people are standing behind them.”
Maya Sakai Chen is an associate variety editor for The Flat Hat and was mentioned in this article due to her organizing role.
