Last Wednesday, Student Union announced a new initiative as part of the “It’s On Us” campaign to combat sexual assault, which will focus on training a fourth of Washington University undergraduates in bystander intervention techniques. The initiative and pledge come shortly after the release of a survey on sexual assault on Wash. U.’s campus, which found that 53.1 percent of undergraduates had not intervened when seeing sexually violent or harassing behavior.

As of Thursday, 151 individuals and 46 student organizations—including Student Life—have committed to undergo bystander intervention training through SU’s new initiative. SU’s goal of training one fourth of Wash. U. undergraduates is a welcome and tangible response to the recent survey. The work done in the past by the “It’s On Us” campaign has helped to raise awareness of the issue, but no change can be made without action.

SU’s initiative and the response so far shows that students care about the issue of sexual assault and want to work to make a difference and genuine, lasting change. As much as the administration may support bystander intervention training through its various programs, initiatives and offices, training will not be successful if there isn’t engagement from students themselves.

We at Student Life would also like to encourage SU, the administration and involved student groups to consider ways in which they can train younger students who might not yet be active in student groups—especially since those students are more likely to have never encountered situations involving alcohol. For a group like Student Life, in which the most defined membership occurs only when students have completed their freshman year, this can be a nebulous task; while we expect every editor to be trained, we recognize the difficulty of training underclassmen. For a Greek organization, the limits might be easier to define: Perhaps bystander intervention training is a prerequisite for initiation to the organization.

To counteract the issue of younger students not yet being committed to groups, we highly recommend that the First Year Center incorporates bystander intervention training into Bear Beginnings, at a time when all freshmen are required to attend.

SU’s outreach should be commended: While the administration has touted awareness-raising efforts, SU is the first group to take tangible steps toward intervening. By reaching out to student organizations in particular and talking to group leaders they know personally, SU encourages students to view training as something they can do alongside people they interact with regularly—and more importantly, people they might hang out with at social events where bystander intervention might be necessary. These are often the people they know best, and being able to trust that other members will intervene on their behalf in a dangerous situation goes a long way in creating a safer campus for all. Further, the commitment from 46 student organizations will hopefully put positive pressure on other organizations to join and get their members trained.

As for the training itself, SU’s initiative promises that it will be tailored to the specific organizations with which it is working. This can range from extensive Green Dot training to a new 90-minute training currently in development. While the existing six-hour Green Dot training is the ideal, more flexibility means more willingness to get involved. Some training, after all, is better than none.

Eliminating sexual assault completely is a difficult proposition, but creating a more responsible and effective student body is an important step. One-fourth of undergraduates is a tangible goal, and one that we think can be reached and even exceeded with the support of a passionate student body and involved organizations.