It takes a community effort to prevent and reduce interpersonal and sexual violence (Sexual Assault, Stalking, Dating and Domestic Violence). The action doesn’t always have to be a huge effort.

Included below are a number of actions you can take as faculty or staff on K’s campus to prevent and reduce interpersonal and sexual violence. We encourage use of proactive actions– steps take prior to a situation of harm. These create and establish norms that interpersonal and sexual violence is not tolerated on our campus.

Proactive Actions

With Colleagues:

Engage in conversations about bystander intervention. Encourage attendance to Faculty and Staff trainings. These trainings are often organized within departments or are announced through campus-wide emails. If your office or department is interested in setting up a training, please contact Haley Mangette, Wellness and CARE Coordinator, at Haley.Mangette@kzoo.edu.

With Students:

One of our methods of preventing interpersonal and sexual violence is by providing training for our students. Students are offered an overview session or a training session throughout the year. An overview session is a 60-minute session that briefly goes over the philosophy behind Green Dot and provides skills for students to use if they witness power-based personal violence. A training session allows for students to go more in-depth and practice these skills.

One step you can take it to encourage your student to attend these opportunities. Consider offering extra credit for attending these sessions! These sessions are announced through campus-wide emails. If you would like to be notified of these dates, please fill out the following question:

Include a Bystander Intervention statement on your syllabus.

• “I support violence prevention efforts across campus.”
• “I believe that everyone should be able to participate in my class without the fear of discrimination, and I am committed to the college’s policy. Additionally, certain behaviors are inappropriate even if they do not meet the technical criteria for harassment. Be respectful to each other.”

Need a paper topic? Check here for Bystander Paper Topics.

In your spaces (offices, emails, etc.)

Add a statement at the bottom of your email signature.

Include a quote about bystander intervention in your email signature.

• “Whenever one person stands up and says, wait a minute this is wrong, it helps other people to do the same.” -Gloria Steinem
• “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller
• “In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” – Martin Luther King
• “At the end of the day it’s not about what you have or even what you’ve accomplished… it’s about who you’ve lifted up, who you’ve made better. It’s about what you’ve given back.” – Denzel Washington