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Elie Sharp remembers how she rescued her brother from an awkward situation during a social event.

A young girl had plopped herself into her brother鈥檚 lap unexpectedly when her brother, who was born with Asperger鈥檚 syndrome and shuns crowds and touching by strangers, whispered, 鈥淗elp me.鈥�

Sharp, a competitive archer, coach and a University of Colorado Boulder freshman from Arvada, Colo., jumped into action with hawk-like precision.

鈥淗ey, I need you over here. Can you help me out?鈥� she asked the girl, who hopped off her brother鈥檚 knee and followed Sharp. The diversion tactic helped Sharp resolve the issue without embarrassing her brother, the girl or herself.

Distraction, as it turns out, can be a powerful tactic to diffuse conflict or to rescue others from awkward, embarrassing, degrading or potentially dangerous situations. Other effective tactics include confronting the situation head-on or employing a stealth approach that allows a helper to fly under the radar. All are practical tips included in an effective training for new students called 鈥淏ystander Intervention.鈥�

The training, developed by the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance or OIEC, raises awareness about personal safety, sexual assault and other serious issues, and reminds students that people sometimes need a Good Samaritan to step up and help a friend or stranger when they are at their most vulnerable.

鈥淲ith stealth helping, sometimes people don鈥檛 even know they鈥檙e being helped,鈥� said Julie S. Volckens, the OIEC鈥檚 associate director for assessment and education.

Volckens and Teresa Wroe, the OIEC鈥檚 education and prevention program director, co-developed and now facilitate bystander intervention training every year for all incoming CU Boulder students. Students are required to take the training during their first semester on campus.听

Students who complete the mandatory program get credit by scanning their Buff OneCard at the end of the session. Those who don鈥檛 make it to the training in their first semester at CU Boulder will find themselves with a hold on their account and unable to register for the spring semester.听

During their training sessions, Wroe and Volckens ask students to consider various scenarios and how they would respond if they sensed a fellow student needed help, and discuss difficult topics such as sexual assault, domestic violence, public drunkenness and bullying in the process. They also ask students to suggest ways of coping with unwanted, negative behavior and provide insights from their own experience and training.

In auditorium classrooms filled to capacity this past week, Wroe led multiple bystander intervention sessions, and invited participants to consider how they might respond to a difficult situation in their residence hall, at a party, in a campus building or in another location.

鈥淲ho here would say, 鈥淚鈥檓 someone who would have my friend鈥檚 back?鈥� Wroe asked participants. 鈥淲ho here would step up if they saw a bad situation happening?鈥�

Wroe told the students, many of them new to the college experience, that the training would help them 鈥渦p their game鈥� with a new and practical skill set.

鈥淲e want to give you some options for addressing problems when they come up,鈥� she told more than 400 students who packed the auditorium in the Mathematics building.

There are multiple motivational factors that can propel people to help a friend or a stranger in need and just as many that can make it difficult to intervene, including embarrassment, uncertainty about whether help is wanted in the first place and personal safety concerns.

A social psychological phenomenon known as 鈥渢he bystander effect鈥� can occur when observers assume someone else will help, that they don鈥檛 have the necessary skills to help, or that it is not their responsibility.

Simply being aware of all of these issues can help students unpack the psychology behind the all-or-nothing dilemma鈥攖he idea that if we can鈥檛 completely resolve the problem at hand, then maybe we shouldn鈥檛 get involved at all, Wroe said.

Arriving on campus and adjusting to a new social environment is an exciting time for undergraduate and graduate students, but it鈥檚 also when students are most likely to run into trouble. The fall semester is when incoming students experience the most thefts, stitches, tickets and sexual assaults鈥攚hich is why people need skills to interrupt these situations before they become a problem, Wroe and Volckens impress upon students during their training sessions.

This past summer, OIEC released the second phase of its sexual misconduct survey findings, including the statistic that 28 percent of the 5,519 female undergraduate students who responded to the survey reported having experienced some form of sexual assault.

The survey identified sexual assault as 鈥渘onconsensual sexual contact or penetration,鈥� and listed several tactics that sexual perpetrators use to facilitate such behavior. The tactics included catching a person off guard; ignoring someone鈥檚 efforts to get the aggressor to stop; deception, manipulation and emotional threats; incapacitation through alcohol; physical threats and intimidation; and force.

鈥淪ometimes when people are in a bad situation, they may not even be able to recognize it,鈥� Wroe told students this week. 鈥淪ay what you see and just start helping.鈥澨�

Sharp, the archer who came to her brother鈥檚 aid, said the bystander intervention class offered 鈥渁 new perspective on things you would not normally think about.鈥澨�

Cameron Sojak, a freshman from a military family that has lived in countries around the globe but now calls Colorado home, said the class was a good reminder to be vigilant about uncomfortable situations that can arise in some social settings.

鈥淭hey never teach you how to be a good person,鈥� he said. 鈥淪ome people need a reminder on how to be a decent person.鈥�