Muhlenberg College prides itself in the sense of community the faculty, staff and students foster on campus. Freshman attend a viewing of the Sedehi Diversity Project, which shows how the college community is made up of people leading very different lives, during orientation weekend. A ‘meet other LGBTQ faculty and students’ event has become a recurring thing on campus.
The Muhlenberg Athletic Department is no different, going to great lengths to ensure that, at least on this campus, being a part of a sports team is so much more than just practices and games. One of these initiatives is Step UP! Mules, a bystander intervention program designed to teach, motivate and engage student athletes at Muhlenberg College to do the right thing and step up in uncertain and questionable scenarios that warrant attention. A program like this should come as no surprise, with the Athletic Department slogan being “22 Sports, One Team” and the emphasis on being a leader and making a difference.
According the to the athletic website, the goals of Step UP! Mules are: raising awareness of helping others, increasing motivation to help, developing skills and confidence when responding to problems or concerns, and ensuring the safety and well-being of self and others.
The program is furnished specifically for student athletes, highlighting the capacity for this subgroup of students to be leaders on campus. Additionally, this target group also encompasses a large proportion of Muhlenberg College’s campus, given the amount of student-athletes, thereby enabling a bystander intervention program for a majority of students.
“I want to make the Step UP! program more relatable to students” – Lily Otu
The program facilitates workshop programs which incorporate role-play scenarios and encourage student discussion, attempting to recreate scenarios in which college students may find themselves in. Workshops target an extensive array of issues of concern on college campuses, including sexual assault, domestic and relationship abuse, mental health and issues surrounding alcohol.
Historically, the program set-ups have varied, ranging from a single sports team attending a program to multiple sports teams and both genders attending the same session. One particularly affecting program featured the One Love Foundation, dedicated towards differentiating between healthy and unhealthy relationships and putting an end to relationship violence. This particular program featured a moving film and then a series of open discussion among team members. Other programs have involved acting out a scenario and responding appropriately, while the mental health program featured counselors from Muhlenberg’s Counseling Center.
But the program that Muhlenberg athletes have come to know may be undergoing some much needed renovations soon. Lily Otu, the recently hired Assistant Director of Athletics for Student Athlete Development, Diversity and Inclusion, has expressed an interest in making Step UP! Mules more relevant and more impactful.
“I will keep the same concepts but I want to make the Step UP! program more relatable to students and have the scenarios be situations that they have faced or will potentially face as a student on a college campus,” said Otu. “I do not have a lot of background on what was done previously, but I think keeping it interesting and engaging is always going to be a challenge with any yearly program. Step UP! is a great program, just like anything, presentation is everything.”
Only time will tell whether or not Otu decides to make minor changes to the program or do a complete overhaul. While making Step UP! Mules a requirement for all varsity athletes is leaps ahead of other schools, there is one major obstacle in its path to actually making an impact—the student athletes themselves. Like the athletes that participate in the program, Alexis Pellechio ‘18, one of the athletic department interns last year, noticed that Step UP! Mules will never have the impact it’s meant to if people don’t start taking it seriously.
“I think that a lot of student athletes may not take the program seriously because they have been fortunate enough to not have experienced these problems and scenarios in their life,” said Pellechio. “It is hard to take something seriously when you think that it could never happen to you, whether it be hazing, alcohol abuse, or assault.”
While it’s easy to blame student-athletes for hindering the success of Step UP! Mules, Otu realizes that this is a “big picture” issue.
“I believe it should be required of all students to dialogue about various bystander intervention topics. Student-athletes are just students that represent the institution on the athletic field, court or track. We have this program because it is important to the department and our student-athletes that we equip them with the tools to be great leaders, and bystander intervention is an imperative piece to that process.”
