Winter 2019 EditionAlumni & Friends Magazine
As a Bobcat community, we’ve been known to have each other’s backs.
But in situations of sexual assault, violence, or hate, it can sometimes be unclear how to best help one another—which is why practicing bystander intervention techniques can help us to become better citizens both on and off campus.
Students can do this by looking inward at their social circles, or “drinking families,” suggests Thomas Vander Ven, a sociology professor at Ohio University.
In his book, Getting Wasted: Why College Students Drink Too Much and Party So Hard , Vander Ven explores how friend groups form unique social practices to take care of each other while in drinking situations.
Vander Ven suggests by infusing these social systems with bystander intervention training, students can offer each other more effective support.
Better Bystanders President Anthony Ciliberto says the club encourages students to practice the Four D’s of Intervention: Direct, Distract, Delegate, and Delay. Photo by Ellee Achten, BSJ ’14, MA ’17
“It’s important to give bystander training to that unit and ask, ‘What are you doing to take care of each other? How do you do it? And what can we do to improve that process?’” he says.
The OHIO community has Better Bystanders, a student-led organization that offers training to students, faculty, and community members on how to safely stand up. They ask participants to practice the Four D’s of Intervention: Direct, Distract, Delegate, and Delay.
“How you intervene depends on your personality, so whether an extrovert or introvert, it’s what you feel most comfortable doing,” said Anthony Ciliberto, the organization’s president.
“As long as you’re intervening in some way, that’s what makes a difference,” he says.
Illustration by Andrea Ucini
