Last fall, Whitman was one of the first colleges in the state to adopt Green Dot, a sexual misconduct prevention program, after the Washington Sexual Violence Prevention College Coalition decided it would be the most effective program to implement at colleges in Washington State. One year after the program’s inauguration. However, students remain divided over its implementation and effectiveness.
“The idea behind the Green Dot program is a good one,” said first-year Andy Larson, who was required to attend a presentation on Green Dot during Orientation week. “But I think that the ‘green dot/red dot’ aspect of it is phrased in such a way that because it is over-simplistic, it is joked about and ultimately more harmful because people don’t take it seriously. I think a lot of other students feel the same way.”
Developed at the University of Kentucky, the program’s campaign is based on dualistic dots: Green dots represent positive actions that make campus safer while red dots are acts of sexual misconduct or acts that perpetuate such conduct.
In a column published in the April 29 issue of The Pioneer, columnist Amy Tian commented on popular attitudes about Green Dot on campus, many of which mirrored Larson’s.
“For many of the people I talked to, the Green Dot campaign is viewed as sort of a joke,” Tian wrote. “For Halloween, some first-years dressed up as red dots and green dots. When someone does something someone else disapproves of, they might say, ‘That’s a red dot right there.'”
While Larson and others believe the program is not the most appropriate way to address sexual misconduct, Associate Dean of Students Barbara Maxwell believes the simplicity of the green dots and red dots is actually beneficial to the program
“Red dot and green dot are very basic simplistic terms, and you have taken a complicated issue that is often very hard to talk about and you have made it very, very basic,” she said. “Our goal ultimately is to provide an effective prevention program at our own institution and then to have it spread throughout the state. So if you have friends at other institutions, green dot would be something that all of us in the state share.”
Tian also saw the campaign’s simplicity in a positive light.
“What I appreciate about the Green Dot campaign is that it’s a way of visualizing one’s influence on one’s community, making abstract concepts concrete,” Tian wrote. “I remember seeing a map in Reid of the campus covered with green dots. Bear with me for a second and imagine that every good deed you do is physically visible, permanent. Your green dots do matter; your actions and decisions do influence the people around you.”
First-year Devin Kuh, one of six students who is working to develop next year’s orientation program, agreed with Maxwell and Tian but believes more can be done to communicate the gravity of sexual misconduct.
“I think the biggest difference it has made is just making sexual misconduct more talked about and getting it into the populous as something that should be talked about,” Kuh said. “However, I do think that we can do more to make people understand the seriousness of it.”
Maxwell stressed that the issue sexual misconduct is just as serious at Whitman as it is larger universities.
“[Sexual misconduct] is a large problem on every campus, regardless of whether or not people have reported it,” said Maxwell. She said that for every 1,000 women on campus, a college can expect to experience 36 incidents of rape or attempted rape. “At Whitman, our female population fluctuates, but if those numbers are true, we’re talking about roughly 27 women every year,” she said.
Maxwell, who serves as the sexual misconduct prevention coordinator as well as the director of student activities, was instrumental in bringing the program to Whitman and has organized two six-hour “bystander training sessions” this year.
Though she believes the program has been a success, Maxwell anticipates that it will be run differently next year. During orientation week for the class of 2014, she is looking forward to students like Kuh presenting the program to incoming first-years.
“I think when you have students saying to students this is what we do at Whitman, the buy-in will be faster and the buy-in will be greater,” Maxwell said.
Despite some student criticism, Maxwell believes Whitman is a great environment for this sexual misconduct prevention program.
“We’ve had as many people go through our two training sessions as Central Washington University has, and I think they’ve offered it four times,” said Maxwell. “I think this reflects that Whitman is a place where people really care about each other, and if there’s anything people can do to make their friends safe, they are willing to do it. If Green Dot can’t work at Whitman, it can’t work anywhere.”
