Last Thursday, I went to a seminar on bystander intervention. While I appreciate Dr. Anne Laurita coming to speak with us, I honestly didn’t feel like I got much out of the event. I think that part of this stems from a having a tough time relating to the scenarios shown in the film Intervene. Amidst the dangerous drinking, hazing, sexual harassment, and other problematic situations, the only one I felt connected to was the part regarding academic problems; I’ve been both the bystander and the person who needed help on different occasions. I’m aware that all of the other situations are seen around campus, some more frequently than others, but having never gone through myself, I felt very detached. I understand that the point of the seminar was to show ways of intervening (although we did discuss the positives and negatives of intervention, which I thought was interesting), but I feel that I would never be in a position where I would even be a bystander able to get involved. For instance, I don’t go partying or drinking, and neither do any of my friends on campus, so I have a hard time seeing myself as a bystander at a party who needs to intervene in an emergency, simply because I wouldn’t be at that party in the first place. I felt very disconnected, and so had a hard time being inspired to act.

While I didn’t feel like the seminar was very useful for me, I hope that everyone else who had come found it to be enlightening, informative, or otherwise positive in some way.

As an employee of Cayuga’s Watchers, I am no stranger to the idea of Bystander Intervention. Oddly enough, the night prior to the Intervene seminar I attended a Bystander Intervention workshop run by Cornell’s Consent Ed. Many of the things we talked about in the Intervene workshop were similar to what we discussed at the other workshop. I find it interesting how intervening can vary from a simple question of “Are you okay?” to a complex situation where we are cautious and afraid to step in. The key point I took away from this workshop that differed from previous ones that I’ve attend was that you don’t have to intervene alone. Sometimes it makes it a lot easier and more comfortable for the bystander if they step in with a group of friends. Most of my previous training focused on how I could help on my own. I thought it was really cool how Intervene made a point to say that you don’t have to do it on your own. Hopefully more people take these types of workshops in the future and can prevent the disrespectful and heinous acts that occur we are blind to.

I was really glad that Charlotte and Liz were able to get this event for the couple of Rose House Scholars. Unfortunately, I think that this event would have actually benefitted several people if it was a larger and almost course like thing that we had to take at Cornell. There should be a better way to implement this program on a large scale. I enjoyed the fact that we covered several different types of situations and what we should do in each whether they be in college parties, in academic settings, or somewhere in between. This little hour long workshop revealed that although we do have certain resources at Cornell, they aren’t advertised around campus very well. I feel like the different resources that Cornell offers are just well hidden facilities. Yes, you’re able to look around as a student. However, there are several newsletters and different places that carry different opportunities which you can lose on. Anyway, it seems that the Skorton Health Initiatives are well made to fit the different situations that may arise while you’re on campus. But having several programs is useless if we’re not using them.

Alcohol poisoning is a common event that happens at many colleges in the US but, other than the alcohol wise mini course we had in freshman year, there has been no actually course or direction as to what to do when a friend isn’t responding.  Yes, alcohol wise is a good (the word is being used lightly) starter course but we were immature and naive when we walked into college. Another thing we, as Cornell students, should be coached on is when should we intervene. We are a huge community but we still have that family-like vibe in the many mini communities we are in. However, even then, how do we know we should step in when an acquaintance looks like they’re in a precarious situation? These were all just little thoughts I’ve had when thinking about how can we make our community a healthier place.