Last Thursday evening was warm, and the energy at the rally portion of Take Back the Night was high. "Tonight is a night about emotions. However, there's one emotion we're not going to feel - fear!" proclaimed Kristie Thomas, a School of Social Policy & Practice doctoral student. "Fear is a violation of our human rights!"

The crowd cheered. Others stepped up to speak- and they weren't just female. College junior and president of One-in-Four, an all-male anti-rape group, Josh Pollack declared, "This is an issue that directly affects all students - all of us are a part of the solution."

He's right. So why weren't more of you there?

The fact is, you don't have to be a woman, or a victim, to be involved in this cause - which is why the groundbreaking organization, One-in-Four, is a model for us all. Their name reflects the horrifying statistic that one in four women will or have experienced sexual assault during their lifetimes. With chapters nationwide, it unites and educates men about issues of sexual violence. Penn's 16 members present their program to fraternity pledges, sports teams and West Philadelphia high school students.

Take Back the Night kicked off Penn's first Sexual Assault Awareness Week, which continues through Wednesday. In my four years here, Women's Week has only grown in popularity and participation, becoming both cool and communal. But now, it's time to talk about sexual violence - a reality for far too many women AND men - and we no longer seem so gung-ho.

Sexual Assault Awareness Week is important, Pollack says, because, "We need to show our support for those individuals who are assaulted and let them know that it wasn't their fault, that their stories will be believed, and most importantly that it is okay on Penn's campus to speak out."

It seems surprising at first that a group of male college students would make this their issue, but beyond the fact that many men experience sexual violence, they are an important part of the solution. English professor and Penn alumna Salamishah Tillet asserts, "Male allies are very important to the movement. Women cannot change sexual violence on their own."

Tillet's experiences with sexual violence - one of which occurred during her freshman year at Penn - are the inspiration for "Story of a Rape Survivor" (SOARS), performed at the Rotunda Friday night. Directed by her sister Scheherazade, the production uses multimedia - such as song, dance, poetry and photography - to chart Salamishah's journey from identifying as a rape victim to a survivor. Performing at Penn, she says, "is a moment of redemption and catharsis."

Too often we think of sexual assault as limited to rape of a woman by a masked stranger in a dark alley. With that narrow perspective, it's easy to persuade ourselves that we would not let ourselves be the victim or that we could never be the attacker. But such an attitude, Thomas says, "perpetuates oppression." In fact, in four of out every five assaults, the victim knows her attacker - and on average, she's known them for a year.

In a time when everyone is looking for some free government money, Penn actually got some - in the form of a three-year, $275,000 grant from the Department of Justice, to address issues of sexual violence. "There are a lot of resources in place to respond to incidents of sexual assault," Jessica Mertz, Penn's new violence prevention educator, says. "But not as much energy has been put in to prevention and awareness raising."

That's where we all come in. These appalling statistics will not change without collective effort, without both men and women refusing to accept sexual violence as just another flaw of society.

Sexual violence is not, as Tillet points out, "a first-world or a third-world issue. It's a human rights issue. It's universal." And it's pervasive - entwined with, and used as a weapon in, countless other global struggles. She continues, "I don't know how you can believe in transforming society without ending sexual violence."

I have, give or take, 400 female Facebook friends. The odds are that 100 of those women will someday experience sexual assault. If we're close enough to share photos and status updates, shouldn't we be close enough to advocate for each other's safety?

Sarah Cantin is a College senior from Boston, Mass. Candid Cantin appears on alternating Mondays. Her email address is cantin@dailypennsylvanian.com