Men were invited to march alongside women for the entirety of Columbia University and Barnard College’s joint Take Back the Night march for the first time this year. (In the past, men have been permitted to join the march en route.)

A representative of Columbia Men Against Violence said that the inclusion of men for the full march was “an experiment.” A march organizer said that there would be a women-only section at the head of the march, and that the decision was made in part because “we recognize that men are survivors of sexual assault.”

An estimated five hundred students participated in Thursday night’s march.