WCU joining battle against sexual assaults

When several sexual assaults were reported at West Chester University during the last school year, students started paying attention. But no one knew quite how to react.

It was as though students shrugged and said, " 'We're just going to let it go, we're just going to let it happen, and next weekend we're going to let it happen again,' " said junior Ma'Shiya Queen.

The incidents occurred as national scrutiny of sexual assaults on college campuses was intensifying. Students elswhere were taking action, and even the White House was getting involved.

One in 5 women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while attending college, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, and the majority of assaults are never reported.

Following the lead of dozens of colleges nationwide, this year West Chester staff and students have signed on to Green Dot Etc., a violence-prevention program that seeks to get bystanders to intervene.

After a soft start last spring, the university will officially launch the program Thursday, during a Green Dot week.

"Now, change is going to happen, and this is what we needed," said Queen, a resident assistant.

Already, almost 450 students and 60 faculty and staff members at the 16,000-student university have been trained in one- or eight-hour sessions.

They are learning to take simple actions to prevent sexual assaults and other violent incidents, such as dating violence or stalking. It might mean checking on a friend to make sure everything is fine, or interrupting a quarreling couple to ask for directions and potentially derail a fight.

"This is something different. It's fun. Everybody can get involved," said Alicia Hahn-Murphy, director of the WCU Women's Center.

The Green Dot program is in use at 280 colleges and universities across the country, a handful of high schools and military facilities, and more than 350 community groups and organizations, according to its website. It was founded in 2010 by Dorothy Edwards, who had previously taught and done counseling in higher education.

Fourteen colleges in Pennsylvania and nine in New Jersey have received Green Dot training, according to the organization.

Pennsylvania State University is preparing to begin the program at its 24 campuses this January. The bystander training was included in the recommendations made this year by the school president's Task Force on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment. The school is under investigation by the Department of Education for its handling of sexual assault complaints.

"We do have a lot of momentum on our campus. Not just students but also faculty and staff are really interested," said Katie Tenny, a coordinator for the university. "I think people are ready for this."

The idea behind Green Dot, based on research about bystanders and perpetrators, is that at some point everyone will witness an act of violence and can do something to help.

Students learn to view each such act as a red dot on the campus map. Any action by a bystander to stop it or to promote safety is a green dot. If green outnumbers red, the culture will begin to change.

Green Dot tells students to take direct action, delegate to someone else, or distract the people involved in the situation.

A green dot can be proactive - putting up a violence prevention poster - or reactive - removing a friend from a threatening situation.

The program provides strategies for intervening "regardless of your personality, regardless of how you come into the situation," said Sherry Mendez, director of wellness promotion.

The approach seems to resonate with students; it tells them they don't have to act like superheroes to make a difference.

The program also gives men, who might feel excluded from conversations about sexual assault - or feel like a subject of blame - a role in preventing violence, Mendez said.

"We don't put people in a room and say, 'Y'all are going to be perpetrators and y'all are going to be victims of sexual violence,' " Mendez said. "We are all bystanders . . . We can all be witnesses, and this is what we can all do."

During the first weeks of school at WCU, some actual green dots were visible on students' umbrellas, buttons, T-shirts and more.

Eric Frans, a senior and resident assistant, said the program has been eye-opening for students, including RAs.

"Normally we would wait until something happened that we had to deal with," he said, but now when a questionable situation arises, "we're like, 'Red dot? Red dot.' "

Mendez and Hahn-Murphy say the idea has caught on more quickly than they expected. They think it's likely the number of assaults reported will increase before it drops as students learn about campus resources - but, Hahn-Murphy said, it is a good thing when students report assaults because they get help.

Frans said his peers like the movement and the idea of keeping each other safe.

"Green Dot tells you you don't have to be a hero. Just do something," Frans said. "It doesn't have to be everything. But it's something."

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