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Suggested Citation:"Lessons Learned from Program Staff." Kuhn, J-U., N. Arain, N., J. Bell, B. Davis, H. Kaiser, D. Madden, G. Prepetit, and K. Williamsen. 2023. Strategies for Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining Sexual Harassment Bystander Intervention Programs for Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27266.
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Lessons Learned from Program Staff

The program staff from the seven institutions also raised several considerations that could make the development, implementation, and evaluation of bystander intervention programs challenging. While not exhaustive, the following points highlight gaps that could be an opportunity for institutions to create even more robust bystander interventions and/or provide additional support:

  • Developing bystander intervention programs: Program staff noted that it could be difficult to generate buy-in from leaders across every department and school of an institution. Additionally, staff noted the challenges in tailoring trainings to the climate of the department, school, lab, and so forth because of all the power dynamics and climate issues in the environment—especially those that are not obvious. For instance, if the program staff are unaware of subtle microaggressions that may be occurring in an environment, it could be hard to develop programs that train and educate individuals to address and respond to such actions. Finally, program staff highlighted the need for programs to account for learners’ roles and responsibilities (e.g., faculty members that are mandatory reporters) so that the training content supplements their obligations.
  • Implementing and executing bystander intervention programs: Several of the highlighted programs indicated having very few staff members (sometimes even just one) leading and executing the trainings. They noted that staff bandwidth and heavy workload can also make it challenging to implement programs and deliver content effectively. Staff also highlighted the need to have effective trainers and facilitators that can successfully equip learners coming from different environments.
  • Maintaining and evaluating bystander intervention programs: Program staff highlighted the risk of retaliation that bystanders face, which may make them more hesitant to engage or use the training in opportunities that require intervention.4 Additionally, staff commented on the challenges in maintaining funding and resources for supporting programs. Furthermore, they highlighted a need to evaluate bystander intervention programs and use effective measures (Banyard et al., 2014; Mennicke et al., 2022; NASEM, 2018, 2021).5

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4 The Remediation Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education is working on a paper on how institutions can move beyond compliance and effectively respond to and/or prevent retaliation; see https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/preventing-retaliation-to-discourage-sexual-harassment.

5 The Evaluation Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education is gathering information and research on the methods for evaluating interventions for preventing sexual harassment; see https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/methods-for-evaluating-efforts-to-address-sexual-harassment.

Suggested Citation:"Lessons Learned from Program Staff." Kuhn, J-U., N. Arain, N., J. Bell, B. Davis, H. Kaiser, D. Madden, G. Prepetit, and K. Williamsen. 2023. Strategies for Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining Sexual Harassment Bystander Intervention Programs for Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/27266.
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Strategies for Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining Sexual Harassment Bystander Intervention Programs for Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students Get This Book
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 Strategies for Developing, Implementing, and Sustaining Sexual Harassment Bystander Intervention Programs for Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Students
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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.

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