Student leaders at USU now required to participate in upstander training
As part of campus-wide sexual assault prevention efforts, student leaders at Utah State University will now be required to participate in upstander trainings.
New legislation requiring this training passed at the Utah State University Student Association executive council last month
Daria Griffith, the vice president over student alumni, proposed this legislation to create a healthier campus and cultivate an environment where students look out for one another.
The proposed bill came just one week after former Utah State football player Torrey Green was found guilty of raping six women during his time at the university.
This new training is available free of charge for use at USU and includes an in-person training relating to sexual assault prevention.
“It is the only training of its kind that focuses on preventative measures for sexual misconduct,” Griffith said.
According to Griffith, this is in comparison to the required sexual assault awareness course freshmen take, which focuses more on resources available to students than preventing sexual assault.
Griffith and the executive council hope this will help students campus wide and not just the leaders who are trained.
“The goal is to expand the reach of preventative measures for sexual violence at USU,” Griffith said.
Griffith said student leaders and subsequent organizations have the furthest reach in student to student interactions.
According to Griffith, if each leader was equipped with this training everyone on campus would be safer.
Athletic department officials have already begun trying to educate athletes and reduce the number of sexual assaults associated with their department. Last year, an in-person training was offered.
The vice president of athletics, Bannon Greer, said the student advisory committee indicated through a vote that they preferred the in-person training to online options.
“They were able to ask questions and interact on a different level,” Greer said.
The training varies in length from 45 minutes to three hours, depending on what the student group selects.
All financially compensated student leaders and anyone in the student affairs department receiving a scholarship will be required to participate.
These leaders may provide the training to the other leaders and councils they are over.