One of the ways to stop sexual assaults from happening is to intervene, and bystander intervention training is often thought to be one of the best practices to decrease sexual assaults on college campuses.

But the problem at a national level and at Iowa State seems to be that students aren’t intervening.

In the Association of American Universities’ recent survey of 150,000 students across 27 different schools, students were asked about different situations related to being a bystander in the occurrence of sexual assault or misconduct.

Among bystanders who said they witnessed someone acting in a sexually violent or harassing manner, more than half of students surveyed at Iowa State said they did nothing.

“I’m not surprised,” said Lori Allen, campus sexual assault advocate and prevention coordinator at ACCESS of Story County. “It pretty much reflects what has been reported through the Department of Justice and through some of the national advocacy networks that deal with sexual assault and violence.”

ACCESS provides shelter, care and counseling for women and their children.

Out of the ISU students who said they had witnessed someone acting in a sexually violent or harassing manner, 52.4 percent did nothing. Of that percentage, 22.4 percent said they did nothing because they weren’t sure what to do, and 30.1 percent said they didn’t because of another reason.

When alcohol is involved, students are even more reluctant to intervene. Out of the students who reported witnessing a drunk person heading for a sexual encounter, 75.8 percent of them said they did nothing, and two-thirds of those 75.8 percent said they didn’t intervene for a reason other than not knowing what to do.

“Heading for a sexual encounter” doesn’t necessarily mean a sexual assault is going to happen.

“Students are making their own judgment that people who go out and drink want to have sex,” said Michael Davis, assistant director of Student Services and Outreach. “The only natural consequence of going out and drinking is a hangover — not rape, not a sexual encounter. Nothing like that. Why do 20 percent fewer students intervene when alcohol is involved? In my opinion, it’s partially because we’re on a college campus where many college students think drinking equates sex.”

Bobby Dennis, male-engagement specialist at ACCESS, said several stages exist to intervening as a bystander. First, the bystander needs to notice the event and interpret it as a problem.

“That’s one of the places where it becomes really unclear, especially in an atmosphere where alcohol is involved,” Dennis said. “There’s potential for those students in the bystander position to also be under the influence of alcohol, and they’re afraid of not knowing the whole situation or not knowing the relationship between the people involved. Those things really stop people from intervening.”

Davis said feeling responsible for dealing with suspected sexual harassment can be an issue.

“It’s sort of diffusion of responsibility,” Davis said. “People oftentimes see it as an uncomfortable situation and they turn around and think, ‘Well, nobody else is doing anything, so I’d be in the wrong by intervening.’ And the fear of retaliation and embarrassment might also be there.”

Once the student feels responsible for intervening, he or she can intervene in other ways than just “getting in someone’s face,” Dennis said. He and Allen recommended creating a diversion from the situation. 

Both Davis and Allen also said not knowing what to do is a big factor in the reluctance to intervene.

Dennis said one of the proactive measures students can take is discussing potential situations before hosting social gatherings.

“Just like you’d tell someone not to spill on your carpet, you tell someone not to walk around sexually harassing women,” Dennis said. “It’s really that simple.”

The next question is how can a college campus begin to change its culture regarding sexual assault.

The consensus appears to involve campus peer leaders.

“People like me or [ISU Police] or other faculty can’t be everywhere, so our focus needs to be aimed at taking peers and giving them the skills to have those conversations about sexual assault prevention,” Dennis said. “Take somebody out of every peer group on campus and give them the skills to talk about sexual assault prevention, so they go back to their peer groups and they start a dialogue around this issue.”

One of the several organizations around campus that has taken aim at preventing sexual assaults is Sigma Phi Epsilon, which paired with Alpha Delta Pi to bring the Live Your Oath campaign to Iowa State.

“It’s been an initiative we’ve taken as a chapter,” said Dylan Roth, Sigma Phi Epsilon president. “There’s a lot of stuff going on nationwide, so it’s something that we’ve been addressing this semester.”

Roth also alluded to avoiding the diffusion of responsibility mindset within his chapter, and that members of his chapter have reported having success in defusing potentially dangerous situations.

“We’ve pushed our members and encouraged them to not be that guy that says, ‘Oh, I’ll let someone else handle that,’” Roth said. “We’ve had guys bring back stories where they’ve said, ‘I saw this going on, I went in and I did something to bring about a solution.’”