Learning to Prevent Campus Violence, EKU-Safe: A Bystander Intervention Training Program

EKU-SAFE is a campus outreach violence prevention program funded through the Department of Justice. One aspect of the project was to design and implement Bystander Intervention Training for all first year students at Eastern Kentucky University, a regional university with an enrollment of 16,000 students. Literature in violence prevention with college campus populations indicates that significant behavior and personal accountability can arise from Bystander Intervention Training (Banyard, Plante, & Moynihan, 2004). The purpose of this article is to report on changes in participants‟ perceptions and interpretations of violence prior to and following Bystander Intervention Training at Eastern Kentucky University and to assess the program‟s potential effectiveness for changing campus culture in terms of attitudes towards violence. Findings from this study will constitute a baseline for continued assessment of program efficacy. Possible future evaluation will assess the extent to which anti violence norms are retained one to three years after initial exposure to program materials. Ongoing efforts are necessary to facilitate broader culture change within the university; this change cannot be accomplished or sustained until a substantial number of individuals commit themselves, through action, to intolerance of violence against women and victim blaming, and support of women‟s safety