Bystander intervention training has always been an integral part of the University of Iowa’s On Iowa! program, which provides a comprehensive introduction to campus life for first-year students. But this year, even more students will receive the important training thanks to a deliberate change in scheduling.

“We know that a very high percentage of students attend the first day of activities on Friday, so we moved up the training,”  says Linda Stewart Kroon, director of the Women’s Resource and Action Center. “The more opportunities we have to expose students to bystander intervention training, the better. We want to equip them right away with these skills.”

The video-based CHOOSE curriculum emphasizes the importance of students reacting to, rather than ignoring, potentially violent or harmful situations involving their fellow students. The goal is to help students learn the skills and gain the confidence to intervene in a potentially negative situation.

"The videos we use begin with showing a scenario that has opportunities in it for bystander intervention that are not taken," Kroon says. “Actually seeing the effects of violence makes a big impact on students and generates a lot of discussion and engagement.”

Students are encouraged to discuss what they saw, pinpointing scenes that needed bystander intervention. After the workshop, students are asked to write down a bystander intervention strategy that they could commit to acting on. Responses have included asking an authority figure for help, creating a distraction, and checking in with the targeted person.

Last academic year, one student wrote, "I learned that sometimes you can avoid these situations without having to cause a huge, dramatic scene. Simply distracting the potential assaulter's attention elsewhere for a moment, then removing the victim from the situation can completely erase the problem."

Other students also reported feeling more able to create simple distractions and ask for help if they witnessed potentially harmful or violent situations, demonstrating they not only learned but also retained the important bystander intervention content.

"The important thing for us is to make it real and to make it relevant," says Kroon.

Before coming to campus, all first-year and transfer students are also required to complete the online Every Choice program, which is designed to reduce sexual assault, dating and domestic violence, and stalking on college campuses through a focus on bystander intervention. Graduate students are required to take a similar program called Not Anymore.