As part of an initiative led by First Lady Sue Snyder to find new strategies to fight campus sexual assault, Michigan State University is receiving $12,000 to create a bystander intervention network in the campus community, focusing on employees at East Lansing bars and restaurants and taxi cab drivers.
The state of Michigan awarded $500,000 in funding to 22 universities, Snyder announced Wednesday, as part of a larger effort kicked off in June with a daylong conference on preventing sexual assault.
Sgt. Andrea Beasinger, a detective with the MSU Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, said the grant represents efforts to create a shift in culture around this critical issue.
“We need to teach and empower people to intervene when they have the opportunity to prevent a sexual assault,” she said. “We need more accountability.”
The state grant will fund training sessions for employees at East Lansing bars and restaurants as well as taxi drivers belonging to the Greater Lansing Taxi Authority. Often, because of their job and interaction with students, they are in a position to intervene before an assault takes place, Beasinger said.
The training will provide the tools needed to safely and appropriately intervene in such situations.
A committee made up of a diverse group of campus and community leaders will help direct and take part in the MSU initiative.
For more information on all of the awarded grants, go to http://www.michigan.gov/documents/msp/Award_List_505133_7.pdf.