At a presentation last Thursday afternoon, the Dartmouth Bystander Initiative team reported results from their new pre-recruitment workshop. The event was advertised to Greek presidents, and nearly all of the Greek Leadership council was present.
Since May 2014, the GLC has required all students intending to join Greek life to attend a DBI workshop. At Thursday’s presentation, DBI manager Benjamin Bradley presented findings from a Summer 2015 focus group study of the redesigned DBI workshop, which identified the three significant barriers to intervention.
Bradley said that they learned that feelings of, “This is not my house or social space, I don’t want to keep anyone from having a good time, and I am a new member,” were the main reasons people felt uncomfortable stepping into a situation.
Bradley also explained the group’s process for developing the new workshop. In the spring of 2015, they set goals for the creation of a new DBI workshop. The goals were to make members feel as if they were supported, to identify common barriers to action and to increase understanding of sexual violence and comfort in intervening.
During the summer, using three focus groups of affiliated and unaffiliated students, Bradley said they formed the “foundation of [the] workshop.” They ran the demo workshop for 25 unaffiliated students. Using explicit student feedback, Bradley said they turned their “okay” demo workshop into “something where I felt like it was really positive and student centered.” He said he wanted it to be “not just a top down initiative.”Assessment and program evaluation coordinator Mary Nyhan said they strived to make DBI as student-centered as possible.
“Our goal is never about checking a box and saying we’ve done something,” she said. “Our goal is to make the workshops meaningful so seeing the student turnout here gives us a sense that we’re on the right track.”
In the fall of 2015, 20 DBI workshops were run over the course of two weeks. In total, 744 students participated, with fellow students as workshop co-facilitators.
Pre- and post- surveys consisting of several scenarios written by students were given to workshop participants. Students participating in the workshops were asked how likely they were to feel concerned, whether they thought the student in the scenario required assistance and how likely they were to intervene. For all the scenarios, the percentage of participants who said they would feel concerned and intervene was higher in the post- workshop surveys.
Nyhan reported that while 740 pre-surveys were conducted, only 450 post-surveys were conducted since the surveys were sent out during the busier end of the term. Twenty-four percent of the respondents reported intervening since the DBI workshop and 82 percent of those who intervened said participating in DBI helped them prepare to take action.
GLC accountability chair Taylor Watson ’16, who works with DBI, said that he was pleased with the turnout at the presentation.
“It’s so good to know that when we are able to find something to act on there’s so much support from different areas of campus and there are a good number of students who understand the role this has on improving campus,” Watson said.
Bradley and Nyhan said they were similarly pleased.
Nyhan said that the 2015 Association of American Universities sexual assault climate survey reported that Dartmouth had one of the highest rates of bystander interventions among all the universities.
Bradley said administrative support inspired the team. DBI had overwhelming support from all parts of campus, from the College president all the way down which was “absolutely fantastic,” Bradley said.
Bradley added that they had support from athletics and the Dartmouth Outing Club and they had done a demo for the graduate student council.
“We’re trying to build a coalition of people who care about this initiative across campus,” he said.
Nyhan said they want to conduct more surveys and analyze the data, as well as continue their partnership with GLC and listen to the student body.
“We’re really committed to finding out are we changing behavior,” she said. “I think understanding changes in knowledge and attitudes are really important.”
Bradley said that immediate next steps include continuing their workshop for athletes, titled “Gameplan 2.0,” and running workshops for students during the summer term.
Amanda Zhou is a junior at Dartmouth College originally from Brookline, Massachusetts. She’s previously been the associate managing editor, health and wellness beat writer at the Dartmouth and interned at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this Fall. She is pursuing a major in quantitative social science and a minor in public policy. At college, she edits the campus newspaper, serves on the campus EMS squad and lives in the sustainable living center. After graduation, she is interested in a career in journalism or data analysis. In her spare time, she can be found running, cooking or trying to rock climb.
