Saint Martin’s University community to ‘Take Back the Night’
March 10, 2011
LACEY, WASHINGTON — As a call for an end to sexual violence,
Saint Martin’s University will host a “Take Back The Night”
event Thursday, March 31, 7 p.m., starting on the Grand
Staircase of Old Main. The event will include a keynote address
by Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney Jon Tunheim and a
candlelight march on campus. It will conclude with a gathering
of the Saint Martin’s and Lacey communities in the University’s
Trautman Union Building.
This free event is jointly sponsored by Saint Martin’s
University’s Offices of Campus Life, Public Safety, Counseling
and Wellness, and Residence Life, and the Department of Women’s
Studies. This is the University’s third annual “Take Back the
Night” march on campus. The public is invited to participate.
Tunheim will offer insights on the impact of sexual violence,
having worked 15 years in the prosecution of crimes against
children, sex offenses and serious domestic violence cases. In
1996, Tunheim was assigned to what was then Thurston County’s
Special Assault Unit. During his time with that unit, he
co-chaired a special committee that created the Monarch
Children’s Justice and Advocacy Center. He was promoted to the
position of division chief in 2001, overseeing the operations of
the Special Victims Team, the Domestic Violence Team and the
Juvenile Prosecution Team. In 2003, Tunheim was promoted to
chief deputy, and in January 2011, he became prosecuting
attorney for Thurston County.
“Take Back the Night” brings survivors, their supporters and
the community together to shatter the silence surrounding sexual
violence. For more than 30 years, “Take Back the Night”
participants—people of all ages, races, religions, backgrounds
and genders—have empowered and supported survivors, raised
awareness, helped those in pain, and asserted that no one should
have to live in fear of sexual violence. The Saint Martin’s
march is intended to unite energies and illuminate the path
toward a violence-free world.
Saint Martin’s University is an independent four-year,
Catholic, coeducational university located on a 380-acre wooded
campus in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic
Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 18 Benedictine
colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and
the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s
University prepares students for successful lives through its 22
majors and six graduate programs spanning the liberal arts,
business, education, and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes
1,250 students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its
main campus, and 650 more to its extension campuses located at
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Everett College, Centralia College and
Tacoma Community College.
For further information:
Laurel Dube
Assistant director of campus life
360-486-8877
ldube@stmartin.edu
www.stmartin.edu
Jennifer Fellinger
Vice president of marketing and communications
360-438-4332
jfellinger@stmartin.edu