One movie and seven people were present in Phipps Lecture Hall in the Physical Science Building Tuesday night.

The Agency and Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System are sponsoring “Sexual Assault & Rape Awareness Week” to honor the Sexual Assault Counseling and Information Service and their recent financial struggles.

Terri Johnson, adviser for The Agency and associate professor in journalism, said they were having “Sexual Assault & Rape Awareness Week” in honor of SACIS.

“We want people to be aware it is on campus, that there is help for this sort of thing and that they can get help right here and that SACIS right now needs help.”

Shaun Johnson, a sophomore English major, attended the movie and said Professor Johnson told her about the event during their Journalism and Democracy class. Along with Johnson, two other students from the class attended. The students agreed that they had all learned something from the movie “Speak” and hoped they would learn more.

Isaly Ferguson, a freshman journalism and psychology major, attended Monday’s discussion and signed up to volunteer at SACIS. At Tuesday night’s movie she said she has seen the movie before, but it still has an effect on her every time she watches it.

Walter Jones, a freshman communication studies major, said he liked the message of the movie when the main character, Melinda, finds her voice and tells someone about how she was sexually assaulted.

Barbara Harrington, a senior journalism major and director of The Agency, heard of how Bonnie Buckley, the executive director of SACIS used money from her husband’s life insurance policy to help pay SACIS employees. Harrington brought the idea to The Agency to help SACIS.

Tara Rosenbaum, a senior communication studies major and member of The Agency, said Harrington had heard about what SACIS had been going through.

“(Harrington) wanted to help out an organization,” Rosenbaum said.

Along with Tuesday’s movie, there are events scheduled for every day this week to raise awareness. Monday there was a discussion of the dangers of sexual assault with a sexual assault victim as one of the speakers. Tuesday night there was a showing of the movie “Speak” based on the novel. On Wednesday there will be a self-defense class, Thursday there will be a panel discussion with a moderator, and The Agency will be selling T-shirts out on the South Quad Friday.

Julia Carlucci can be reached at 581-2812 or jmcarlucci@eiu.edu.