UI to train frats, bars in sex assault intervention

The University of Iowa will provide bystander intervention training annually for its Greek system members and is in the process of developing a similar program for bar workers amid the heightened concern over sexual assaults in recent months.

Meagan Schorr, a violence prevention coordinator at UI's Women's Resource and Action Center, said staff will conduct sexual assault bystander intervention sessions with fraternity and sorority houses beginning in the fall, with the idea of making it an annual training.

Schorr, in a Partnership for Alcohol Safety meeting Wednesday, said the training gives students the tools they need to intervene when they recognize a high-risk situation.

"We really focus on what kind of behaviors you can look out for — alcohol and isolation," Schorr said. "So we have a lot of conversations and a lot of guided practice around, when you see these things, what the different ways you can intervene?

"We talk about really realistic ways you can intervene. You can go up and start a conversation with the potential survivor-victim. You can have a conversation with the perpetrator. Maybe spill your drink on them and create a distraction. You can do all these different things to intervene and interrupt that situation."

Tom Rocklin, UI's vice president for student life, said the entire UI Greek community, which is made up of about 3,000 students, has agreed to take part in the annual training.

"This isn't stopping a rape in progress, this is getting someone out of a situation that has a lot of risk to it," Rocklin said.

UI has had two reports of sexual assaults in fraternity houses this academic year that have triggered "timely warning" notifications by university police.

UI is Rape Victim Advocacy Program is also partnering with UI's Women's Resource and Action Center to develop a bystander intervention curriculum for bar owners, managers and staff. A pilot program, called Raise the Bar, will be conducted in two bars next month, and its organizers intend to offer it to any bar that chooses to participate beginning in late summer.

"This is something we hope to roll out and bring into the bars in Iowa City to have this conversation about sexual assault and bystander intervention — so how do we stop these behaviors from happening without blaming the victims or potential victims," RVAP education coordinator Susan Junis said at the meeting.

Junis said the program is modeled after similar programs targeted to bar workers nationally, including in Washington DC, Boston and statewide in Arizona. Junis said while the program would be a voluntary one for bars initially, she would like to see it tied to a business' alcohol license in the future.

The new initiatives were brought up during a larger conversation about sexual assault by members of the Partnership for Alcohol Safety, which includes UI, city and downtown business leaders.

Fourteen "timely warning" notifications have been issued by UI police this academic year in response to reports of sexual assaults on or near campus. Experts say that reported sex assaults, however, represent just a tiny fraction of a crime that mostly goes unreported.

Last fiscal year, for instance, RVAP logged 306 crisis calls involving recent rapes, the highest seen in at least the past decade and almost 30 percent more than the previous year. Iowa City was the location of 132 of those assaults reported to RVAP, which serves a multi-county area.

Wednesday's discussion also touched on risk reduction strategies — for instance educating students about the role alcohol often plays in sex assaults — and how such an approach can be perceived as "blaming the victim."

UI Public Safety Director Chuck Green said some have become afraid to discus risk reduction for fear of being labeled as placing the blame on the victim, and questioned how to approach that type of education.

"So when I think about informing my daughters about how to enhance their own safety and security ... unfortunately that does get labeled as victim blaming," Green said. "So we're basically not doing any of that anymore."

Junis said the best approach is to talk about risk reduction in a way that is "global" instead of directing it at one population.

"Right now a lot of risk reduction that is out there is targeted specifically at women — don't jog alone, cover your drinks, all of those things we talk about that are important to know," Junis said. "But those are important for everyone's safety, and I think that's something that's missing from the conversation, is that it's important for everyone to be safe and cover their drink, it's important for everyone to have the buddy system and not jog alone at night."

Reach Josh O'Leary at 887-5415 or joleary@press-citizen.com.