One University Prepares Students to Intervene

The University of New Hampshire’s campaign to prevent sex assault is based on two programs: “Bringing in the Bystander” was developed in 2002 as an in-person training program that the university’s Prevention Innovations Research Center sells to colleges. The program teaches people to safely intervene when a situation looks as if it could become dangerous, and it is aimed at increasing their willingness to do so.

The other program, “Know Your Power,” is a newer social-marketing effort that uses 26 images depicting real-life scenarios to promote bystander behaviors.

New Hampshire’s is thought to be the nation’s only research center working to develop prevention strategies based on a scholarly evaluation of what’s effective, says Jane Stapleton, co-director of the center. “We’re developing evidence-based prevention,” she says. So far the center has worked with nearly 450 other colleges.

“Know Your Power” images can be tailored to depict the ethnic composition of the student population on individual campuses and to show specific ways students party at different institutions — in private homes or garages, for example, or with red Solo cups or beer cans. The images even use the names that students call drinking games on particular campuses. A poster at New Hampshire, for example, refers to beer pong as “Beirut.”

“The more students see themselves in the images, the higher the effectiveness,” says Ms. Stapleton. The images often are made into screen savers, posters, stickers, and bookmarks. “We have collected anecdotal information from students who said, ‘I was at a party, I saw a friend who was intoxicated and she was led upstairs by a guy she didn’t know. I wasn’t sure what to do, but then I remembered seeing the image on the back of a bathroom stall.’ "

While New Hampshire has published scholarly papers showing that students recall the images, the research doesn’t specify the extent to which that finding may actually have led to a reduction in sexual assault on campuses. The use of bystander intervention is so new, says Mr. Stapleton, that such studies have not yet been designed.

Robin Wilson writes about campus culture, including sexual assault and sexual harassment. Contact her at robin.wilson@chronicle.com.