Bill Phan recently became the new director of Men Against Rape & Sexual Assault. One of his first orders of business was to open membership to brothers in all ?fraternity chapters at IU.
“One of my goals this semester is trying to make this a Greek community-wide group,” Phan said. “When we meet we’re going to use resources that IU provides so the men in this program will be trained to handle issues that relate to sexual assault.”
MARS is designed to educate fraternity men about rape and sexual assault with the goal of preventing assaults from happening as well as knowing how to deal with them if they do.
“One of the things we will definitely be doing is bystander intervention,” Phan said. “It helps guys in the program feel able to intervene if they see something that ?isn’t right.”
Phan said Northwestern University has the most active MARS group in the country. He hopes to make IU’s program active, as well.
“I think MARS has been dormant, not necessarily absent, from IU for a while, and I think Bill’s making a really strong effort at revitalizing the program,” said sophomore and new MARS ?member Elliot Cofer.
Applications to join the group are being accepted until Feb. 20, and they can be submitted through the email each fraternity received ?from Phan.
Applicants also have the opportunity to become a discussion leader, who will have more private discussion and question sessions with speakers that come to ?different MARS events.
The first MARS event is planned for Feb. 28 and will feature a presentation for fraternity members titled “Blurred Lines: Lessons from the Field About Sexual ?Assault.”
“We’re going to have a prosecutor going over laws and rules about what is sexual assault, what is the line,” Phan said. “It’s a very blurry line, and we want to make that a very defined line.”
Defining this line for fraternity members is important so more men are able to take action if something ?goes wrong.
“Each house has a risk manager, and I think this also helps to show it can’t only be the risk manager who’s dealing with all these incidents, but there can also be people who were educated through the MARS program that help the overall quality of ?fraternities,” Cofer said.
MARS is also planning to have some events during the Culture of Care week in April, which is also sexual assault month.
They have a tentative April 14 date for a speaker to talk about relationships.
“There’s going to be advice for the Greek community, but we want to put positive light on things, such as what is a positive relationship, how to treat people and advice for the MARS members on what the expectations of a ?gentleman are,” Phan said.
Along with educating fraternity members about sexual assault, MARS is also dedicated to making sure everyone is safe when they’re at the frat houses.
“We want one or two guys in every frat to be a member so that every single woman can feel safe at our houses and at our parties,” Phan said. “We know it’s not just a woman’s problem — it’s a man’s problem, too.”
