Women and Allies Rising in Resistance (WARR)

Women and Allies Rising in Resistance (WARR) was a group that appeared at OSU in the early 2000s. The earliest mention of WARR in The Lantern was in 2005. Its main purpose seemed to be to promote social justice issues, including but not limited to anti-rape work. One of WARR’s earliest events was their Take Back the Night march and speakout event on May 11^TH, 2005 that had around 100 people in attendance. WARR continued to host Take Back the Night marches throughout their time on campus. WARR’s coordinator, Deborah Schipper was documented as a spokesperson for the May 16^th, 1983 “Women Take Back the Night” march that was sponsored by Women Against Rape (WAR). Schipper was also the coordinator of the OSU Rape Education Prevention Program (REPP) during her time as WARR’s coordinator. It is not clear if WARR created itself in WAR’s image, but it is evident that both of these groups had similar aspirations of changing the culture on OSU’s campus.

The Lantern frequently reported on Women and Allies Rising in Resistance, however, in 2009 the organization appears to modify their name and is recorded as Womyn and Allies Rising in Resistance. It is unclear if this was a permanent name change because The Lantern then reported them as Women and Allies Rising in Resistance in the following years.

WARR did not just plan marches and educational events, they also worked with OSU administration. After their continual protests in 2010 and 2011, WARR was able to finally work with the OSU Board of Trustees to revise the student sexual misconduct policy to redefine consent as something that “must be freely given and can be withdrawn at any time." Tess Sabo, WARR president in 2012, led this campaign.