PHOTOS: Students march Uptown, bringing awareness to recent slew of sexual assaults

Hundreds of students took to the street to tackle recent sexual assaults for the "It's on us, Bobcats" march Thursday night. 

[dropcap txtcolor="#234a83" style="dropcap1"]S[/dropcap]tudents marched and rallied on College Green Thursday night in response to a large amount of sexual assault reports since the beginning of the academic year.The “It’s on us, Bobcats” march and rally, co-organized by seniors Cody Shanklin, Mallory Golski, and Hannah Burke, was an effort to bring students together to rally against sexual assault and rape culture at Ohio University. “This is about changing the culture of Ohio University,” Burke said.[AdSense-A]Protestors marched down Court Street, West State Street, and College Street, ending back on College Green, where a rally was held outside of Cutler Hall. Student speakers at the rally included Mary Ryznar, the creator of a “Safe Walk” GroupMe for women on campus, Bailey Williams, the president of the College Democrats, and several female students who were personally affected by sexual assault. Golski, a senior journalism major at Ohio University, was approached by Shanklin several weeks ago after first few sexual assaults were reported. After contacting Burke, the three met over coffee to discuss and plan Thursday night’s rally.“We all kind of know that consent is mandatory, but I think that the fact that so many students are promoting that idea — whether it’s through hanging banners or whatever — I think that it’s getting louder and therefore it's gonna start changing,” Golski said.