CSU police, residence hall staff, Support and Safety Assessment, and the Women and Gender Advocacy Center are among university groups that provide safety and crime prevention educational programs in a variety of settings.

General university educational programs include fire safety, personal safety, interpersonal violence prevention, alcohol and drug awareness, and computer crimes. Many programs can be tailored to fit the needs of the audience. Interpersonal violence trainings include information about the crimes of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

For more information about educational, outreach and events related to interpersonal violence, or to request a program contact:

CSU Police Department
(970) 491‐6425
750 Meridian Avenue – Green Hall (at the corner of Laurel and Meridian streets)
Police.colostate.edu

Title IX Programs and Gender Equity
(970) 491-1715
123 Student Services Building (East Drive – Corner of University Ave and Libbie Coy Way)
titleix.colostate.edu

The Women and Gender Advocacy Center
(970) 491-6384
112 Student Services Building (East Drive – Corner of University Ave and Libbie Coy Way)
wgac@colostate.edu

In 2021 the CSU Police Department delivered 24 programs or presentations to 1164 people, including students, parents, faculty, and staff. All trainings are offered year-round, and if a group would like a post training follow-up, that is always an option. However, CSUPD does not schedule classes unless they are requested.

CSUPD training topics

Active Assailant Response Series

• Active Assailant Response 100: This course is about raising awareness of participants in many different and difficult situations. Curriculum includes tips on what to do if presented with various active assailant scenarios; pre-attack cursors of active killers in the United States; how to intervene early to help others connect with CSU resources.
• Active Assailant Response 101 – Lecture and Lab: This course is about raising awareness of participants in many different and difficult situations. Curriculum includes tips on what to do if presented with various active assailant scenarios; hands-on practice in a controlled safe environment; pre-attack cursors of active killers in the United States how to intervene early to help others connect with CSU resources.
• Active Assailant Response 200 – Stop the bleed: Curriculum covers how to recognize life-threatening bleeding and intervene effectively. The person next to a bleeding victim may be the one who’s most likely to save him or her.
• Active Assailant Response 300 – Table top exercise: Based on needs and size of the class, this course is tailored to help university employees understand their response roles by realistically simulating an active assailant attack in a discussion-based, informal classroom setting. The exercise is customized to attendees and their university roles.
• Active Assailant Response 40(0-4) Full Drill: Scaled to meet the needs of the group, these trainings are designed to give participants the chance to adapt and apply knowledge they have received in previous courses.

Additional Safety Training

• Safety 101: General safety and awareness for many different emergencies.
• Alcohol Education and Awareness: General education on effects of alcohol on the body and alcohol laws.
• Drug Education and Awareness: General education on effects of illicit and effects on the body and drug-related laws.
• Marijuana Education and Awareness: General education on effects of marijuana on the body and marijuana-related laws.
• Safe and legal cycling on campuses: Biking tips and tricks on how to stay safe, following laws and CSU policies, and fastest routes around campuses.
• Intro to US and Colorado laws for international students: Introduction to laws to help international students be safe and successful at CSU.
• Welcome to CSU for new student families and friends: Brief introduction on Colorado Laws, CSU policies and how to keep you and your stuff safe.
• New student alcohol laws and amnesty: Introduction to the amnesty law to encourage students to call 911 during times of extreme need.
• CSUPD and you: Introduction to CSUPD covering officer training, equipment and guardian-centric model of policing.
• Realistic Safety Strategies: Provide the attendee with risk reduction tools to help with their self-awareness, self-defense technique, and empowerment.

In 2021 Support and Safety Assessment held six presentations and 300people attended.

Support and Safety Assessment’s presentation is intended for all members of the CSU community and is offered on request. It was also held at the Professional Development Institute, a continuing education opportunity for CSU employees.

Tell Someone: How to report to the university if you are concerned about safety or mental health – your own or someone else’s TellSomeone.Colostate.edu.

Bias Reporting: How to report information about in incident of bias. Reports are reviewed by the Bias Assessment Team https://biasreporting.colostate.edu/.

Threat Assessment, Student, and Employee Consultation Teams: These teams work to prevent, identify, assess, intervene, manage, and coordinate a response to situations involving students and employees that may pose a threat to the safety and well-being of themselves, other individuals and the university community https://supportandsafety.colostate.edu/consultation-teams/.

CSU Education Abroad holds programs related to departure and travel security. The intended audience is typically students who are traveling abroad, and also includes faculty who may be leading trips abroad and other stakeholders involved.

In 2021 topics included:

• Ten region specific pre-departure orientation that focused on culture, CSU travel requirements and included a health and safety portion which covered travel safety and crime prevention.
• Travel petitions were required of each student and asks that they research and document any health and safety information related to their specific destination.
• Two faculty leader trainings which were held individually and in groups to discuss managing student health and safety abroad.
• Fifty highly site-specific in country trainings occurred which covered topics such as parts of city to avoid, transportation safety tips and other location specific information.

The CSU Police Department also implements the following crime prevention strategies on campuses:

• Regularly patrolling residence halls
• Regularly patrolling all buildings on campus and checking doors and windows for security concerns, particularly after hours
• Reporting facilities issues such as lights and door locks that do not work correctly
• Surveying university grounds for security and safety issues
• Presenting educational programs to students, parents, and employees about general safety, sexual violence safety, DUI enforcement, substance abuse, bike safety and education.
• Offering SafeWalk, a CSUPD service that provides a security escort from any campus location to another campus location or a location within three blocks of campus, year‐ round, from dusk to dawn.
• Educating the university community about proactive reporting options to connect people who are struggling with mental health issues or who may be a risk to themselves or others with university resources and alerting campus offices that can address safety concerns presented by these individuals.
• Providing a comprehensive resource to all employees regarding university offices that can help them address people who present safety concerns.
• Collaborating with committees and individuals across the university to identify and address safety and security needs for special events, new buildings, and concerns.

Educational Programs to Prevent Sexual Assault, Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, and Stalking

CSU is committed to preventing interpersonal violence, and increasing awareness of interpersonal violence, as well as being a thought‐leader in helping other communities prevent interpersonal violence.

New students are required to complete Vector Solution’s Sexual Assault Prevention for Undergraduate and graduate student program, which is the university’s online sexual assault awareness and prevention program, which educates students on jurisdictional definitions of and issues associated with consent, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking.

Students learn about consent, including how alcohol and drugs impair a person’s ability to give or receive consent, as well as how to help a friend, and how to intervene in a situation that might escalate to sexual assault. It also includes information about the procedures for institutional disciplinary action in cases of alleged dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, as well as the procedures a victim should follow if one of these crimes has occurred.

New employees are required to complete Vector Solution’s Preventing Harassment and Discrimination Training program, which includes jurisdictional definitions of and issues associated with consent, sexual assault, dating and domestic violence and stalking in addition to information regarding discrimination and harassment. It also includes information about the procedures for institutional disciplinary action in cases of alleged dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking, as well as the procedures a victim should follow if one of these crimes has occurred. 

Included in both the employee and student modules is robust information regarding safe and positive options for bystander intervention. The modules provide students and employees with realistic sexual assault and relationship violence scenarios to help them identify problematic situations and practice intervention strategies. The scenarios escalate through each of four scenes, each getting increasingly problematic.

Students and employees are then asked which scene they started to feel uncomfortable with the behaviors, how they would feel about doing something to address this situation, and what they would do to intervene. Students and employees are provided with a range of intervention options and a toolbox of skills to practice to increase their confidence as bystanders. Students receive tailored feedback supporting their response and providing them with additional perspectives and strategies to reinforce intervention.

They key message is that it doesn’t matter so much what students do in problematic situations, it’s that they do something.

Also included in both the employee and student modules is information regarding risk reduction information. Learners explore many characteristics of health relationships, including jurisdictional definitions of consent, and how to recognize relationship abuse both in person and online. This programming helps learners identify strategies intended to stop relationship violence and abuse before it occurs by encouraging positive and health behaviors that foster health, mutually respectful relationships.

This primary prevention programming includes a clear statement that the institution prohibits sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking in its policies.

CSU, through its Women and Gender Advocacy Center, works to educate the university community about interpersonal violence in an effort to prevent sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking before it occurs. This work is done through ongoing prevention and awareness campaigns which are sustained over time and focus on increasing understanding of topics relevant to and skills for addressing consent, dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking. This programming highlights the impact of changing of social norms, risk reduction strategies and other approaches.

These integrated programs, initiatives, strategies, and campaigns are designed to be comprehensive, intentional to end domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and sexual assault. These programs:

• Are culturally relevant, inclusive of diverse communities and identities, sustainable, responsive to community needs, and informed by research or assessed for value, effectiveness, or outcome.
• Consider environmental risk and protective factors as they occur on the individual, relationship, institutional, community, and societal levels.
• Decrease perpetration and bystander inaction and increase empowerment for victims to promote safety and to help individuals and communities address conditions that facilitate violence.
• Are offered in a multitude of formats (print, digital, in person, etc.) and to the full spectrum of university community members (students, faculty, staff, etc.).

The Women and Gender Advocacy Center reports that in 2021, they provided 63 ongoing prevention and awareness campaigns or presentations that reached 4,017 people.

The programs from 2021 included:

Interpersonal Violence Programs: These programs aim to educate attendees on interpersonal violence such as sexual violence, relationship violence, and stalking, and how societal norms allow it continue. These programs help raise awareness to decrease perpetration. 

Consent: Help students learn about consent and better understand the nuances of what is and isn’t consensual. Colorado jurisdictional definition of consent is utilized in these programs. The SAFE model (Say it, again, firm, exit) is often used in these trainings and it helps participants learn how to be explicit with their wants, empowering them and promoting safety.

Sexual Assault 101: Attendees learn more specifically about sexual assault than general interpersonal violence programs. These programs help raise awareness to decrease perpetration.

Healthy Relationships: Help attendees understand what is healthy, unhealthy, and abusive in a relationship and how to navigate unhealthy and abusive behaviors. These programs help raise awareness to decrease perpetration.

Stalking: Illuminates realities of stalking behaviors and encourages participants to consider if their behaviors are stalking or cute. These programs help raise awareness to decrease perpetration.

Supporting Survivors: These programs aim to directly support survivors and coach others on how to better support survivors in their lives whether or not they know survivors are around them. Several versions of these programs were offered with topics regarding coping with triggers, navigating boundaries during a pandemic, workshops and discussions. The programs empower survivors. 

Masculinity: Discuss healthy and unhealthy masculinities and behaviors and help students to identify the difference. These programs address conditions that may facilitate violence. 

Body Positivity: Helps attendees build community, end harmful societal body norms, and reduce body shaming behaviors. 

Bystander intervention: Bystander intervention means safe and positive options that may be carried out by an individual or individuals to prevent harm or intervene

Trainings teach learners about the “Five Ds of bystander intervention,” which are tools that can be used to support someone who is being harmed. This includes training participants on how to use a spectrum of different intervention options. The spectrum ranges from the most engaged to the least (while noting that any are helpful).

The Five Ds are:

• Direct – directly intervene in a situation
• Delegate – get help from someone else
• Delay – after the incident is over, check in with the person who was harmed
• Distract – take an indirect approach to de-escalate the situation
• Document – if someone is already intervening and you believe the person causing harm behavior is escalated, document the situation

These allow for varying levels of intervention based on the situation and the bystanders level of safety.

when there is a risk of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Bystander intervention includes recognizing situations of potential harm, understanding institutional structures and cultural conditions that facilitate violence, overcoming barriers to intervening, identifying safe and effective intervention options, and taking action to intervene (wgac.colostate.edu/education/anti-violence-strategies-and-campaigns/).

When it comes to sexual violence on college campuses CSU believes that bystander intervention complements prevention efforts that focus on potential perpetrators (as they are the only ones, through making the conscious choice to not perpetrate, who can truly prevent sexual violence) and risk reduction strategies which focus on potential victims.

The Red Whistle Brigade: Through the Women and Gender Advocacy Center, students are trained to provide interpersonal violence education programs to their peers.

The Office of Equal Opportunity offered a Sexual Harassment Awareness Training which discussed elements of sexual harassment. It highlighted information from various policies and touched on topics regarding discrimination, harassment, consensual relationships, reporting obligations and resources. This training was offered six times in 2021 when departments would request in person trainings. Those six presentations reached 146 CSU employees, including student employees, and Associated Students of Colorado State University.

Safety information is available to CSU students and employees on the university’s safety site (safety.colostate.edu). During new employee orientation, employees are also provided with this link. Students receive information about the safety website during Ram Welcome. 

Safety messaging about sexual assault from the Public Safety Team. This includes preventative information in required and voluntary alerts.

CSU is a recognized city of Fort Collins partner, the first municipality in the nation to become an “It’s On Us” city, committed to preventing, reducing and understanding incidents of interpersonal violence.

More information about crime on campuses:

• The university’s safety website (safety.colostate.edu)
• Emails from the university, which are received by all students, faculty and staff.
• Special text alerts shared by the university. Students, faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to sign up for emergency text alerts. Students sign up via RamWeb (ramweb.colostate.edu/registrar/Public/Login.aspx). Employees may sign up via the administrative applications portal at aar.is.colostate.edu/
• Printed safety alert bulletins describing specific crimes or perpetrators
• Social media posts to the shared CSUPD and Public Safety Team Facebook and Twitter accounts