The journey to becoming one of two directors for Men Against Rape or Sexual assault started with a realization for Will McElhaney.
It was a realization that came after a close friend revealed she had been recently sexually assaulted.
McElhaney listened to her story, internalized the message and went to talk to the president of his chapter, Kappa Delta Rho, about what he could do.
MARS provides sexual assault prevention training and discussion sessions to fraternities and their members.
The goal is to have a civil and educational discussion session where greek men can talk about the misconceptions, questions or general concerns they have about sexual assault prevention.
McElhaney said he was enticed by the comprehensive MARS program and how it opened his eyes to the magnitude of the problem.
“I met the organizers, had an interview and got involved,” he said.
McElhaney, a freshman at the time, said it took him a few days to apply at MARS after meeting its members. It would be another two weeks until he would get the job.
After being behind the scenes for a couple of years, McElhaney and his co-director will have the ability to put forward their goals. McElhaney said he intends to continue the fight against sexual assault.
“I want to keep letting people know the options, like consent, and spread awareness about how to go forward filing a complaint,” he said.
MARS emphasizes preventing sexual violence rather than reactionary solutions.
That is why MARS mandated each chapter send 15 percent of its incoming pledge class to a training session starting fall 2016.
McElhaney said the intention of the mandate is the few members attending will learn a lot and take the lessons back to their respective chapters. The lessons primarily focus on bystander recognition and prevention.
“If you have people in bystander prevention at your event they can identify risky situations,” McElhaney said. “It keeps people safe.”
IU’s Interfraternity Council is on board with the mandate.
Jack Polte, the vice president of IFC’s Board of Standards, said he fully supports MARS.
“To us MARS is a valuable resource to the greek community and the education of young men around the matters of sexual violence,” Polte said.
McElhaney and Polte sought to emphasize that sexual assault doesn’t benefit anyone and therefore, needs to be tackled head on.
“The concerns of sexual assault are a national issue and our campus is fortunate enough to have a program like MARS and dedicated professionals to continue the education of young men on ways to combat sexual violence,” Polte said.
McElhaney said IU could do more to prevent cases of sexual assault, but he did point out that IU’s greek community has fewer sexual assaults than the national average.
However, he said simply being below average is not good enough because there are still dozens of cases every semester at IU.
McElhaney said MARS aims to let people know that they’re not alone.
However, he did address the issue of growing rates of reported sexual assaults on campus, and nationwide. He said each community has its own reasons but there is a growing trend.
“A lot of people don’t know that the amount disclosing is actually going up,” McElhaney said.
He agreed with Polte about the efficacy of conversations taking place at organizations like MARS.
He said the work it continues to do helps prevent sexual violence in the greek community.
