By noon Thursday, the normally quiet quad at the University of Illinois Chicago was filled with about three dozen students holding protest signs and passing out flyers condemning sexual violence. A colorful, temporary chalk mural covered the sidewalk outside the Lecture Center Building B with messages such as “We are Jane Doe” and “Stop Victim Blaming” written in eye-catching script.
UIC is one of several campuses in Chicago and around the state where students are protesting after a two-year-old sexual violence case resurfaced last month at Cornell University. A woman referred to as “Jane Doe” filed a civil suit last month after a prosecutor declined to pursue criminal charges against seven men she alleges raped her in 2024 while she was intoxicated at a fraternity party on the Ivy League school’s Ithaca, New York, campus.
The reopening of a criminal investigation and appointment of a special prosecutor has shed new light on Cornell’s and law enforcement’s handling of the case — drawing national headlines and sparking conversations and outrage about sexual violence on campus. The outcry has prompted schools across the country to step up advocacy, resources and support to help students and sexual assault victims cope with the fallout.
This month, Illinois students in particular have seized the moment to raise awareness and speak about the prevalence of sexual assault and how authorities address it.
Thursday’s “National Day of Action” prompted hundreds of students at Lincoln Park High School to walk out of class at midday in solidarity with “Stop Sexual Violence” protests at UIC and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville downstate.
Between chants on UIC’s quad Thursday afternoon, student speakers took to a megaphone to talk about the importance of accountability and demand justice in the Cornell sexual violence incident. Nova Mohiuddin, 23, and an organizing member of the UIC student chapter of Chicago Socialist Alternative, was the first to take the mic.
“I think it is important to push back against sexism, especially when so many people are normalizing it,” the fourth-year economics major said. “I think it’s now more than ever the time when we need to be speaking out.”
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Though women outnumbered them, male students were among the crowd protesting on the Quad. Jacob Belencion, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student at UIC, said it’s an important time for more men to be showing up in support.
“We need to be encouraging other men to be showing up to these spaces and calling out any misogynistic behavior,” Belencion said.
Almost 300 miles away, students at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville were standing against sexual violence. After seeing information about the National Day of Action online, Isabel Montano, a junior studying philosophy and economics, decided to take action at SIUE.
It can be really easy to feel overwhelmed with sadness and anger, but Montano said she thought it would be good to channel those feelings into “an outlet to try to do something good and bring people together, to bring about positive change,” she said.
It’s her hope that talking about and shedding light on issues like sexual violence can help bring about change.
“Even if I’m just one person standing out there with a sign, I think that one voice makes a difference,” Montano said. “…it’s not just for [Jane Doe] at Cornell. You see many women coming forward now, speaking about their experiences. It’s about the collective, how people relate to that.”
The inspiration to speak up went beyond college campuses.
Hundreds of students filed out of class at Lincoln Park High School on Thursday afternoon. At the front, four students held up a large banner with “#EndSexualViolence,” scrawled in pink capital letters.
A long line of students snaked out of the school toward Lincoln Avenue, chanting: “No means no, sexual violence has got to go,” and a simpler, “No means no,” and “My voice, my choice.” The demonstrators ended up on the steps of the Lincoln Park Zoo’s administrative office, where students took turns at a megaphone. “You don’t have to be a victim to say something, to do something,” one student yelled, and the crowd erupted in cheers.
This wasn’t LPHS junior and walkout planner Isabella Scaffai’s first time protesting. She walked out of school last year to rally against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the city, which gave her the foundation to help plan Thursday’s demonstration alongside the LPHS Women Empowerment Club.
Word of the alleged incident at Cornell University has spread around LPHS, prompting students to speak out against it, Scaffai told the Tribune ahead of Thursday’s walkout.
It’s disheartening to be excited about the independence, growth and freedom that come with going to college only to realize there’s still a threat of abuse, Scaffai said.
“I just think, especially girls, feel like they really, really want to be able to feel free and feel safe, and it makes them so angry that [women are] susceptible to this, affected by this violence,” Scaffai said, adding that whether it’s a friend, their mother or sister, she thinks almost everyone knows someone that has been sexually assaulted in some way. “I know that when I go to walk out, it won’t be just for me and my future. It’s going to be for my friends, for the women that have raised me,” she said.
LPHS senior Chloe Woodall, 17, helped raise awareness of the rally by making posters and spreading the word on social media.
As much as it tapped into the national conversation about the Cornell case, it also helped teach students what consent means, she told the Tribune. “I hope that if people weren’t clear on consent and what, really, sexual assault entails, that maybe this gave them a clearer understanding of it,” she said.
Other Chicago campuses offer support through existing resources, including Northwestern University’s Center for Student Advocacy and Wellness and UIC’s Women’s Leadership and Resource Center and Campus Advocacy Network. For survivors of sexual violence struggling with the news, it can be helpful to take advantage of resources and others like the 24-hour Chicago Rape Crisis Hotline, according to Sarah Layden, chief program officer and interim director of the nonprofit organization Resilience.
While the Cornell case has drawn significant attention and public support, survivors may respond differently. Still, people of all ages should continue to be offered education and safe spaces for healing, Layden said.
“…I think building community with other survivors and speaking out can absolutely be compelling and really healing to people. At the same time, it’s also okay if someone isn’t ready to do that,” Layden said. “That may not be the safest thing or the right option for every survivor, and just because somebody doesn’t report right away or goes through what is typical trauma response in the aftermath of sexual assault, doesn’t invalidate their experience.”