By Aria Cummings
On November 4, Kelly Schrader, the Coordinator for the Office of Sexual Violence Prevention (OSVP), moderated an event in the Library building called Green Tea & Green Dot, to open the conversation of sexual assault and prevention to students, faculty and staff.
Students in attendance got to learn more about Green Dot and how community members can work to prevent sexual violence on campus. Schrader started by talking about how Green Dot began in the late 2000s as a response to the epidemic of campus sexual assault and how the movement has progressed to this day.
‘Green Dot’ tries to work as a counterpoint to maps many colleges release that represent instances of assault as red dots where they happened. Green Dot takes a position of trying to empower people to protect each other and change behavior, working to metaphorically outnumber the red dots with green dots of positive behavior. Green Dot says that it’s up to everyone to make this change.
These green dots, behaviors to prevent sexual assault, can be very simple interactions that in aggregate work towards changing culture. Schrader gave an example of one way to prevent sexual assault from happening to someone you know. Say you went to a party with a friend and they left the party with someone they just met. You know your friend was not planning to hook up with anyone. Green Dot encourages you could try directly talking to either person to ask about their plans. This puts the emphasis both on looking out for your friends, and holding your friends accountable. The workshop emphasized choices you could make in a single moment to decrease risk for a friend and for our community.
Schrader also discussed the bystander effect. Many times people believe that others will step in to change a situation. Green Dot encourages anyone who sees something going on that strikes them as not right, to step in for the safety of our whole community, regardless of your relationship with the people involved.
Online Green Dot at Evergreen defines their work further, writing, “A Green Dot is your individual choice at any moment to make our campus safer. A Green Dot is any behavior, choice, word, or attitude that promotes safety for everyone and communicates utter intolerance for sexual assault, partner violence, and stalking.”
At the end, Schrader shared resources for students including the OSVP, the Health Center, and the Counseling Center. These resources are all confidential, but others may not be, for example professors have to report information about sexual harassment and sexual misconduct to the Title IX Coordinator, Senior Conduct Administrator, or the Civil Rights Officer.
I hope that everyone who reads this article will take these topics very seriously and will also take advantage of the resources available so that more green dots can outnumber all the red dots and make Evergreen a safer place for everyone who learns, lives, and works here.
You can find more information about Green Dot at blogs.evergreen.edu/evergreendot and the Office of Sexual Violence Prevention which can connect you to services and resources at www.evergreen.edu/violenceprevention
