Hamline changed its Bystander Intervention Training program this summer from Green Dot to Step UP!, a change that, according to Sexualities & Gender Diversity Programs Director and Deputy Title IX Coordinator, t. Aaron Hans, will lead to more participation in the program and awareness around campus.

Utilized by college campuses all over the country, Bystander Intervention Training programs give students the tools they need to step in and speak up when they see sexual misconduct, bullying, racism, homophobia, transphobia or any other behavior that is unwanted by the student community.

Sophomore and Transfer New Student Mentor Tasha Semanko was already Green Dot-trained because of her sorority Delta Tau, which requires all of its members to have the certification.

“I’m the kind of person who believes that if you see violence happening, you should step in and help,” Semanko said.

Samenko has not been trained in Step UP! yet, but she’ll be attending the training session that is for individuals who have gone through Green Dot training.

“Hopefully if more people have the training, the violence will go down and more people would be safe. I think it’s beneficial for everybody to do. Everyone should do it,” Semanko said.

“[Step UP! will] allow us to continue to talk about power-based personal violence but from a larger context,” hans said.

Some of the reasons that hans, along with Dean of Students/Title IX Coordinator Patti Klein, chose this “open source” option were cost, adaptability to our community’s needs and allowance to explore other bystander situations than the sexual misconduct focus that Green Dot had.

“Most importantly, we can train students to be facilitators,” said hans. This means that students will be able to train other students to be active bystanders and community members.

They also chose Step UP! over Green Dot because of the time to complete the training. “The “Step UP! has a lot of benefits,” hans said, “it has trainings that can be done in shorter periods of time, 60 to 120 minutes” while Green Dot trainings “are a minimum of 4 hours”.

Said hans, “Step UP! fits into our vision for Hamline’s Title IX work, and that ‘It’s On Us’ to believe people when they come forward, stepping up when we see something, prevent instances of bullying, harassment… and responding when we witness or have things reported.”

Title IX is a federal law that prevents all schools from discriminating based on sex and gender. It’s On Us is a movement started by President Obama in 2014 that combats campus sexual assault by asking everyone to take personal responsibility for it.

New Student Mentors who were previously required to attend Green Dot trainings missed out on this year’s training day because of inclimate weather last spring semester.

“We have not had the chance to do a Step UP!-specific training in [Green Dot’s] place,” Becky Kaarbo, Assistant Director of New Student Programs, said. “However, NSMs were trained on conflict resolution, Title IX, Gender and Sexualities and other diversity and leadership topics during their two weeks of August training.”

Join Semanko at the Step UP! “crash course” for students who already have gone through Green Dot training which will be on Thursday, Sept. 20, from 11:15 a.m. – 12 p.m. If faculty, staff or students want to learn more about the Step Up! Program, the informational session is on Tuesday, Oct. 16, from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Visit the Hamline website to learn more.