You're walking to get to your class in Ballantine, and amidst all the students walking, talking, and enjoying the spring weather, you notice someone cying in the Arboretum. That person is visibily upset, and as much as they try to pull it together, they just can't. What do you do?
This past week was Culture of Care week. According to the Indiana University Student Association website, Culture of Care is a Steering Commitee that is "an expansive effort of the members of the Bloomington and Indiana University communities to grow a culture that holds students, faculty, and the Bloomington community accountable for promoting safety and well-being for all its members."
In many sociology and psychology courses, we learn about the bystander effect, which is when there's a low probability of someone helping another person in a space with many other people are present. The reason for this is the belief that you don't have to, because someone eventually will. Unforunately, that's not the case every time, and it's something that is trying to be combatted on our campus.
IU Student Affairs decided to do an experiment on IU's campus. In similar fashion to the ABC show, What Would You Do?, they created situations that are common problems on every college campus, and they had hidden cameras capture whether or not a bystander intervenes.
What they found was.... Well, you can see for yourself:
Culture of Care based the situations on commitees that they have:
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Awarness
Mental Health Awareness
Respect
Sexual Wellbeing
No school is perfect, and I've definitely had my shares of positive and negative experiences at IU. After watching this though, it really makes me happy to be a Hoosier. The video comes at a great time, especially with Little 500, "the World's Greatest College Weekend," around the corner. It serves as a great reminder that we're all Hoosiers, and we have to be courageous and help one another because as the great Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
So next time you see someone in situations similar to ones in the video, what will you do?
Here are some other great stories about this topic: