Proactive, Reactive, and Red Dots
Proactive vs. Reactive
Green dots can be PROACTIVE or REACTIVE.
Proactive Green Dots: Little things you do to make it less likely that violence, or a red dot, will ever happen. This could include you having a conversation with a friend about your stance against violence, wearing green dot gear, or posting an update on social media that violence is not acceptable in the UD community.
Reactive Green Dots: The choices you make in response to a situation that you think might be high risk or might eventually lead to something high risk. This could include you stepping in when you notice something not quite right in the student neighborhood, walking a friend home when they've had too much to drink to be sure they make it home safely, or telling a friend to back off when you know the other person is not interested. Reactive green dots come in the form of the 3D's: Direct, Distract, and Delegate. A direct green dot occurs when you handle the situation with confrontation. Distracting is changing the conversation and the energy of the interaction by distracting them with something else (dancing, a problem, food, bathroom break, etc). Delegating is finding someone else who you feel will be more successful in fixing the problem (bar tender, other friends, Public Safety, etc).
Recognizing Red Dots
A red dot is a single moment in time where someone’s choices, actions, words, or behaviors contribute to or tolerate violence in any way. A red dot on our University of Dayton campus map is the 3 seconds it takes for someone to raise their hand and strike their partner. One red dot is the choice someone makes to have sex with someone else without their consent. Another red dot is the 2 minutes it takes for someone to use their words to threaten, intimidate, frighten, or coerce. No one knows exactly how many red dots there are at UD. But we do know this: there are too many.
The following definitions all represent red dots on our campus map:
Power Based Personal Violence: a form of violence that has as a primary motivator the assertion of power, control, and/or intimidation in order to harm another. This includes partner violence, sexual assault, stalking, and other uses of force, threat, intimidation, or harassment of an individual. It also includes the use of alcohol or drugs to commit any of these acts. These acts are inclusive of acts committed by strangers, friends, acquaintances, intimates, or other persons.
Sexual Violence: Any sexual contact that lacks consent and/or capacity to give consent
Partner Violence: Physical, sexual, or psychological harm, or threat of harm, by a current or former partner
Stalking: Course of conduct targeted at an individual or group that would cause a reasonable person to feel afraid (following, obsessive Facebooking, texting, calling, unwanted letters, gifts, etc)
If you or a friend have experienced a red dot and are looking for resources, please check out some of your options below:
- UD Counseling Center, 937-229-3141
- UD Health Center, 937-229-3131
- UD Campus Ministry, 937-229-3369
- Dean of Students Office, 937-229-1212
- Kristen Altenau Keen, Assistant Dean of Students for Education, Support, and Student Empowerment, kaltenau1@udayton.edu
- Miami Valley Hospital, 937-208-8000
- Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), 1-800-656-HOPE