Bright blue t-shirts graced the Lawn this past Tuesday as members of Hoos Got Your Back invited students to sign a pledge. This pledge asked students to be bystanders in potential sexual assault scenarios.
The Hoos Got Your Back initiative focuses on reducing the number of sexual assault encounters and on the role of the active bystander — someone who actively works to prevent sexual assault when coming across a threatening situation at the University. Hoos Got Your Back also encourages awareness of the Green Dot initiative.
Green Dot language includes phrases such as “green dot,” which represents an act of sexual assault prevention on Grounds, and “red dot,” which represents a potential sexual assault interaction on Grounds. The Green Dot initiative asks University members to turn red dots into green dots when they seem them on Grounds.
Green Dot offers both Overview Talks, short discussions highlighting Green Dot’s message and introducing common Green Dot language, and Bystander Trainings, in-depth sessions giving participants the tools to engage with peers as active bystanders, according to its website.
Hoos Got Your Back member and third-year College student Maeve Curtin said she has seen a recent shift in the rhetoric and dialogue among University students.
“People are really vocalizing the behaviors that they’re doing and trying to pay more attention to it,” Curtin said. “Once you see more and more people engaging in this type of active bystander behavior, then you are more likely to intervene yourself. I think it was happening when I was here my first semester, but I have just seen it build and build, so that’s really exciting.”
Some students who signed the pledge Tuesday discussed the importance of being an active bystander and being available when peers need support.
“I think it’s important to know what to do in a certain situation, especially if either you’ve been through it or you know someone who has,” second-year College student Camila Zarate said. “It’s definitely a good reassurance to know maybe these are steps we should take during a situation like that.”
Other students who signed the pledge had more personal connections to the goals Hoos Got Your Back aims to achieve.
“I know a few people who have been sexually assaulted, so it’s kind of something that touches close to home for me,” first-year College student Nicholas Jacka said. “I think it’s a really good movement, and it’s great that so many college students are active in the movement.”
Third-year College student Janie Hammaker, who is involved with Green Dot, said the program is expanding. She hopes seeing the Hoos Got Your Back merchandise on Grounds will help spread the initiative of Green Dot.
“We’re out here giving out shirts to students to remind them to be active bystanders because we are the most important bystanders,” Hammaker said. “I think every year we have just been getting more and more shirts and more and more people involved.”
In addition to signing the pledge, the Green Dot Day of Action occurred this Sunday. This event offered Green Dot Bystander Trainings to encourage University members to participate in the organization’s efforts.
Hoos Got Your Back has grown significantly in the three years it has been at the University. Hammaker estimated the program has grown by about 50 percent.
Curtin said Green Dot and Hoos Got Your Back have so far been successful in promoting their causes and encouraging students to discuss the issue of sexual assault on college campuses.
“When we started the campaign, it was really about making a name for ourselves,” Curtin said. “I feel like we have done a wonderful job marketing and getting that discussion out there.”
Looking toward the future of the organizations, Curtin hopes to explain direct ways students can be active bystanders in their community. She also wants to involve more students in the Green Dot training program, where they can learn how to be effective active bystanders.
“I would love to have people go through [Green Dot] training and then become facilitators … so that we can equip students not only with the message that violence won’t be tolerated on Grounds … [but also] tell people how they can do that,” Curtin said. “It’s not just this arbitrary message where we’re saying ‘go be an active bystander.’ We’re actually giving people the tools to do that.”
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