Uppers Partake In Workshop to Promote Action

The Prevention Innovations Research Center (PIRC) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) collaborated with Exeter students to guide a required workshop, called “Bringing in the Bystander,” for all uppers on Sunday, April 29 on how to recognize and respond to sexual and relationship violence. Students had mixed reactions on the workshop’s effectiveness.

Upper peer facilitators trained by PIRC researchers led small groups to discuss “the concept that all community members have a role to play in ending sexual and relationship violence and stalking,” according to an email sent to the upper class.

The workshops covered the roles of students before, during and after events of sexual and relationship violence. However, some student group discussions were hindered by the timing—students cited workloads and the inconvenience of hosting it on a Sunday night—as well as some students who did not want to partake in the training at all.

The Academy worked with PIRC to train some uppers to be facilitators for the program. The opportunity allowed for 50 uppers and three lowerclassmen from Exonian Encounters to attend a three-and-a-half hour training workshop earlier in the month. In the training session, the facilitators discussed specifics about bolstering conversation on topics like sexual harassment and rape culture before implementing this training on Sunday night.

Cosgrove spoke to the decision to hold a series of Sunday workshops only for uppers. “The uppers are receiving this training on Sunday because they all serve as leaders on our campus, and that will be emphasized even more next year as senior leaders.”

A topic highlighted in this first meeting was the idea that even by being a bystander, one can still have a positive impact on a situation.

“I learned that there are effective and ineffective bystanders,” lower Matthew Wabunoha said. “Whenever I thought of a bystander, I thought of someone who was neutral, who saw the situation and did nothing. But at the session I learned that there is more than just negative connotations for a bystander, and there are good ones as well, if they act on what they see.”

Upper and facilitator Annie Small noted that she was intrigued by the idea that there was more than one type of bystander. “There’s a spectrum, they taught us, and I can think of many instances where I was a bystander and I didn’t even realize it,” she said.

During the discussions, a pyramid was used to visualize this spectrum with more common and broader offenses, such as sexism and apathetic bystanders, forming the base and less common and more specific offenses, such as core offenders, forming the top. Another diagram used was a recognition versus frequency line that showed how less recognized forms of sexual or relationship violence, such as catcalling, occur more frequently than more intense violence, such as rape.

Students analyzed potential scenarios, including sexual assault and sexual harassment on campus, and how bystanders should respond. Many participants commended the school for taking steps to address the issue of bystanders.

According to upper Colleen Easler, before the workshop, though she knew what a bystander was and the positive and negative aspects of one, she hadn’t thought about how the frequency of and and inaction in response to different acts of sexual violence were inversely related.

“It’s disappointing that things like catcalling that happen every day aren’t really recognized or addressed, and people still get away with it even though they can still be uncomfortable and psychologically harmful for those on the receiving end,” she said.

Although students felt the information they learned was pertinent, the timing of the workshop made for a less productive learning environment. Upper Payton Guliford reasoned that since the workshop was on a Sunday evening after Saturday classes, students were less inclined to offer their inputs. “The main issue was the timing of the workshop,” Guliford said. “Especially because it was late on a Sunday evening, lots of people didn’t want to talk at that time.”

He recounted that within his group, the first half of the time spent was significantly less productive. “I didn’t think it was all that productive. Within the first half there wasn’t much progress, it was just me and one student responding to the facilitator’s questions.”

Gulliford also commented that since it was a mandatory meeting, students were even less likely to harbor conversation. “We were forced to go, so it made there be a forced atmosphere. Some students felt like they were forced to be there engaging, and so they didn’t. That affected the group.”

Upper Joe Walewski also felt that students would have been more engaged in the training if they had been there voluntarily.

However, upper Gavin Sabalewski thought that there were still lessons to take away from the training. “One of the biggest takeaways was that acts considered to be minor sexual harassment occur most frequently because bystanders rarely intervene and the perpetrators are not prevented from repeating the action. There wasn’t a lot of new information, but discussing these issues with other students allowed everyone to hear new perspectives.”

Even though he believed these types of conversations were important, upper Andrew Liquigan said, “Overall, I didn’t feel like it was an especially novel or effective session. The amount of time allotted didn’t feel like it lived up to the detail of the training we received.” He also thought the scenarios provided weren’t as helpful as they could have been. “The scenarios we discussed felt sterile, like the sort of thing you’d see in a classic movie about teenage life.”

Popular suggestions for future sessions include a different meeting time or having these discussions in advisory groups, where students tend to be more comfortable and acquainted with one another.

Still, students appreciated that they were receiving training on how to approach such a difficult topic. “The initiative that we’re taking to talk about these issues is definitely a good thing,” Liquigan said. “We just need to be more mature and realistic about it in my opinion.”