Every college strives to make their campus safe, but this is hard to do when there are so many unsupervised spaces. Public Safety might be able to patrol the streets, but they can’t stop what they don’t see. It is late at night, in the dark, with the music blaring that violence happens and goes unnoticed. Green Dot is an active bystander initiative with the goal of placing the responsibility of making our campus a safer place on the whole community instead of only on those individuals in dangerous situations. Green Dot trains members of the community to safely intervene and prevent instances of power-based violence. Dr. Dorothy Edwards, the inventor of the Green Dot Bystander Intervention Program, believes that we can reduce this violence by educating bystanders to intervene. This applies to situations of sexual assault, domestic violence, and other kinds of potentially harmful interactions.
DePauw Student Academic Life has trainers that can teach students how to effectively and safely diffuse dangerous situations. The main curriculum is the 3 D’s: Direct, Delegating, Distraction. You can be direct and confront those involved in the altercation, delegate by asking others who might be better suited to aid in resolving the conflict, or distract those involved and stop the situation all together. This training gives you the tools you need to help out a fellow student no matter where you are on campus.
Campus violence should be something everyone takes responsibility for. Bridget Kirby, risk manager at Alpha Chi Omega, shared, “Risk manager programs like Green Dot and TIPs are helping take our campus to the next level in terms of bystander intervention. Problems like sexual assault and binge drinking are of course systemic issues and although one person can make a difference by intervening, that has to occur more often and be the standard for real changes to occur on campus. This is why these campus-wide initiatives to educate as many people as possible are so important, so that we can change the culture at DePauw to be one in which we truly look out for one another, regardless of your Greek affiliation.”
If you are a DePauw student and are considering receiving this training, it will be offered several times throughout the semester. To learn more information, you can visit the link listed below or e-mail greendot@depauw.edu. You can also register to go through the training with any group or organization you are a part of on campus. Another training program offered on campus is called TIPs, which stands for “training intervention procedures” and is specifically for alcohol-related incidents. If you are interested in being TIPs trained you can contact Julia Sutherlin, who works at the alcohol initiatives office, or e-mail her at juliasutherlin@depauw.edu.
After you have been through the TIPs training, you can actual get paid to look out for your friends and classmates. If you sign up to be a Sober Monitor, all you have to do is go to a party, stay sober, and watch out for potentially dangerous situations. No one has to know that you are on the job, and you can have as much fun as you want! This position pays around $40 dollars a night. If you are interested, contact cats@depauw.edu.
Everyone has the potential to make a difference. Spending a few hours educating yourself could make a huge difference in someone else’s life and positively affect the whole campus.