One of the major takeaways from the Association of American Universities' (AAU) large-scale campus sexual assault survey was the lack of bystander intervention occurring at U.S. colleges.
The AAU surveyed 150,000 students from 27 member schools, with the exception of Dartmouth College, a non-member respondent. At 23 schools, the majority of students said they did not intervene as a third-party in situations that appeared like they could be sexually dangerous.
Last spring, the White House singled out the University of New Hampshire (UNH) to contribute to a report with recommendations for preventing campus sexual assault. In particular, the White House lauded UNH for its bystander intervention training administered to students.
"We need to move our institutions forward to work creatively with students to figure out how to intervene as bystanders," Jane Stapleton, co-director of the Prevention Innovations Research Center at UNH, told The Huffington Post. "[Bystanders] are not these super-human individuals, we are all bystanders in many ways."
According to data from Men Can Stop Rape (MCSR), 80 percent of males in college are uncomfortable when witnessing a female being harassed or mistreated in some way. However, they rarely act on those feelings because they feel isolated.
With its Bring in the Bystander program, UNH offers training for how to safely intervene in such situations.
In its survey, the AAU asked respondents if they intervened when "a drunk person heading for a sexual encounter" and 77 percent answered negatively. Even when the situation was described as "someone acting in a sexually violent or harassing manner," about half the respondents said they did not get involved.
The White House launched the It's On Us campaign to educate people on preventative measures such as bystander intervention. MCSR has a step-by-step outline of a safe method for intervening in a potentially dangerous situation.
"This is a complicated, nuanced issue," Robin Holmes, University of Oregon's vice president for student life, told The HP. "The only thing we can continue to do is to ask questions and develop enough trust to determine what's really going on."
