Strategies for Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining Sexual Harassment Bystander Intervention Programs for Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students

To address the persistent problem of sexual harassment within higher education, research suggests that environments need to convey that sexual harassment is not a norm and actively discourage it when it does occur. One approach that researchers have identified as helping to create such environments is bystander intervention programs, which prepare and equip individuals to interrupt and intervene when harassing behavior occurs. This paper explores bystander intervention training approaches that are designed for the complex work environments within higher education, and considers how to apply the principles of bystander intervention to the experiences and environments of faculty, staff, and graduate students., Institutions within the Action Collaborative were asked a standard set of questions to learn about their experiences with commitment and buy-in from leadership, details on how the trainings were developed and what audience it was targeted to, and how the training programs were evaluated. The paper summarizes responses from seven of these institutions and ends with a call for additional research and action.

This individually-authored issue paper was created by members of the Prevention Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education to understand how institutions are addressing the gap in bystander intervention training for faculty, staff, and graduate students. The Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine brings together academic and research institutions and key stakeholders to work toward targeted, collective action on addressing and preventing sexual harassment across all disciplines and among all people in higher education. The Action Collaborative includes four working groups (Prevention, Response, Remediation, and Evaluation) that identify topics in need of research, gather information, and publish resources for the higher education community.