STEP UP! empowers the S&T community to foster a
culture of awareness, intervention, and
inclusion.  STEP UP! is a two-part program
the first part is a 2 hour training
dedicated to giving students the skills
and motivation necessary to
intervene in problematic situations.
One hour of the training include scenarios practice
scenarios such as alcohol misuse
academic misconduct bullying discrimination
and sexual violence. STEP UP! also
includes a pro-social component where
students who put the set of principles
into action are recognized.
The training is founded on three basic principles.
first - most problems happening group settings
second - friends are usually in a better position to offer help
and third -  you will be in a situation in which you can
help in the future
you might be asking yourself what exactly
is bystander intervention?
This is where individual step up in a
problematic situation to help a person
in need. The great thing about our
campus is that we always want to help our peers.
In fact 87% of students report
that they would intervene in situations
where someone's health or safety was in jeopardy.
Unfortunately data shows that students
are not intervening at this rate.
The STEP UP! program can help you understand
why students are not intervening as much
as they would like to - by identifying
barriers to intervention.
One of the barriers of intervention is
diffusion of responsibility.
This means that individuals are less
likely to intervene in a large crowd to
help someone in need.
Why? because they assume someone else
will do it. Another example of the
barriers of intervention is
pluralistic ignorance. This is when an individual believe
that something is wrong but assumes the rest
of the group approved with the activity
therefore decided to go against their
feelings and go along with the group.
Understanding the barriers that exist can
help each of us STEP UP! and offer
effective help.
STEP UP! teaches a very simple decision
making model according to this model
bystanders need to go through steps to
offer help.
The first step is to notice things that
happen around you. One must be paying
attention to his or her surroundings to
accomplish that first step. The next step
is to interpret it as a problem
sometimes it takes a little more time
and examination
next comes the assumption of personal
responsibility this and oftentimes is
where the process stops. Humans have a
tendency to think the others will do or
say something - that is the bystander effect.
The more people that are in the
room the less likely someone is to intervene
but if someone accepts responsibility to
intervene that is when we
move on to the next step, which is -
Know how to help. Here is where
practice comes into play
Knowing what you say how to say it - that is how we can help.
Once all of these steps
have been accomplished that is what the
intervention takes place. If an
individual's stopped short of this step -
that's another lost opportunity. So the
fourth step know how to help is what the
step of training really focuses on to
make sure everyone knows their
intervention style and has different
options that help you intervene in any
situation. The three styles are direct
that is not having a problem telling
anyone what is what. The second is
distract that is thinking of creative
ways to draw attention from the
situation at hand. The third is delegate
A style to use if you are not comfortable
directly intervening or you feel that
the situation is unsafe
you are most comfortable finding someone
else to do the intervention.
You may be asking yourself what can  you do to STEP UP!
right now you can get involved
confront bias talk to someone new
take responsibility reach out to those in need
report an incident watch out for friends
Request a training for
yourself and your friends. Are you part of
a team, an RSO, or community then
request a training at stepup.mst.edu
Help us create a campus culture
that a safe healthy and inclusive.
How will you STEP UP!?
