ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Sarah Daniels stood at the front of an auditorium on the University of Michigan campus and looked out at the 120 or so students before her on an unseasonably cool day in late August.
The first day of classes was about two weeks away. But for many of these students, their education had already begun.
"We want people to have sex with people they want to have sex with," Ms. Daniels told the students in th eir maize-and-blue T-shirts, Birkenstocks and backward baseball caps. "You are the front lines. You can be a role model, step in and say, 'It's not O.K.,' or, 'Be safe!' "
The room erupted in appreciative finger snapping (the new clapping).
The students, a near-even split of men and women and nearly a third of the university's 400 student resident hall advisers, had come to hear Ms. Daniels, the assistant dean of students, give a talk entitled "Sexual Misconduct and Bystander Intervention: What It Is and What to Do About It." It was one of three speeches she would give that day.
In the audience for one of thos e sessions was Sarah Hong, a senior. Ms. Hong, 20, who grew up in Seoul and Vancouver, British Columbia, is majoring in biopsychology, cognition and neuroscience, with a minor in community action and social change. She is an R.A. in Oxford Housing and has been charged with overseeing 26 mostly first-year students. She is also a member of student organizations that address campus leadershipand sexual misconduct.
During her freshman year, Ms. Hong said, a friend told her that she had been sexually assaulted, and counseling the friend was formative. "It was a devastating experience, even for me," she said. Other people "in the community," Ms. Hong said, were not taking her friend's situation seriously. "I was confused by that. No one seemed to care and I didn't know what resources to direct her to. I didn't know how to deal with something so serious."
As a sophomore she decided to become a volunteer for Sapac, short for the university's Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center, committing to a 40-hour training program that prepared her for the role as a confidential student counselor. As an R.A., her obligations are different. If someone discloses information about a possible violation of the school's sexual misconduct policy, she must report it to a resident hall supervisor.
It can be a tough balancing act: being part of the university's staff and still acting as a sensitive friend to a dormitory neighbor.
"My job as an R.A. is to reassure them, to make sure they know of all the resources: that's most important," Ms. Hong said of students who might report sexual misconduct. "People panic, they say, 'Oh, everyone will know about this now!' It's my job to reassure them that they still have control of the situation. It's my job to be a friend and to establish trust."
Helping teenagers make the transition from high schoolers in their parents' homes to college students balancing the freedoms of an unchaperoned social life with the load of academic expectations has always been a big job for R. A.s, most of whom are no older than 21 themselves.
But in recent years, the job has become much more intense. The federal government has laid out new guidelines about universities� �� responsibilities in investigating, addressing and responding to allegations of student sexual misconduct. These measures have helped open a national conversation about sex and sexual assault on campus, and the role of the university in prevention, awareness and disciplinary measures. At the same time, binge-drinking and drug-taking, which often play a role in campus sex and sexual misconduct, continue to escalate.
Last week, the Association of American Universities released the findings of a sexual misconduct survey that culled data from more than 150,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students at 27 universities. In it, nearly one in four undergraduate women said they were victims of sexual assault or misconduct. At Harvard College alone, 16 percent of female seniors said that during their time at Harvard they were subjected to "nonconsensual completed or attempted penetration."
During the winter of 2015, the University of Michigan conducted its own study to try to quantify the frequency of sexual assault. The Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Misconduct found 22.5 percent of undergraduate females and 6.8 percent of undergraduate males said they have experienced nonconsensual kissing, touching or penetration. "In most cases, the unwanted sex ual penetration occurred primarily after verbal pressure, and under the influence of drugs or alcohol," the study said.
The school has been publicizing the results widely among its faculty and students. Ms. Daniels said: "I work in this field, so I knew the results would be dismaying, but even I was surprised by the numbers. It is sobering, very, very sobering."
Schools like Michigan are offering workshops for new students on how to have discussions about sex, which is admirable even if administrators are somewhat optimistic in believing teenagers and 20-somethings will be comfortable having conversations about a topic that remains, for many adults, difficult to openly address. Complicating the matter is a university climate of political correctness that instills in students a fear of offending others and that hampers open dialogue.
Ms. Hong has helped lead workshops for incoming students that focus on consent. But students come from so many different backgrounds, and with such a spectrum of sexual experience and sexual education, that it can be difficult to know what they understand.
Photo Materials used in the training of resident advisers. Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times
"You can be talking to students about consent and contraception methods and someone will say, 'Oh, at my high school we were just taught not to do it,' " Ms. Hong said. "I am often wondering if students are just sitting there, confused."
Even as R. A.s are encouraged to befriend and offer mentorship to the students on their floors, they are designated "mandatory reporters" of any incident that may violate the school policy on sexual misconduct, which accounts for a range of behavior from rape to sending explicit photographs of someone over the Internet without their consent. Even something as difficult to measure as texting someone more than they may desire can warrant a report.
Megan McDonald, 21, is the resident coordinator for Stockwell Hall, which means she has an overall responsibility for the dorm's 400 students, with direct accountability for about 50. A senior and a public policy major, Ms. McDonald sits down with her agenda at the beginning of the week and tries to carve out 25 hours to address her residents and their needs and another 25 hours for homework and studying. Sometimes, the dedicated R.A. time is spent trying to make friends with the students living in Stockwell, even as she lets them know that she cannot keep confidential anything they tell her related to sexual misconduct.
"It's a hindrance on your social life because you know if a friend confides in you, you can't necessarily keep it a secret," Ms. McDonald said. � ��It's one of the burdens of having this role."
But she said she believes it's important to put her R.A. job before friendship. "During training, we talk about it and we try to remember, this is somebody's kid, this could be your kid one day," she said.
And it can be hard to shut off the worry that R. A.s almost necessarily feel. Amanda Champagne, 20, is a senior who is applying for master's programs for social work. When she and her friends go to parties, she takes care to be sure that her group leaves with everyone it arrived with and that no one walks home alone. "My friends will make fun of me and say, 'Amanda, you're in R.A. mode.' They call me the mom of the group," she said. "Being an R.A. has enhanced my understanding of the un iversity, so I do feel like I have a heightened awareness, especially about sexual assault."
R.A. gigs at Michigan are hard to come by, with "hundreds" of applicants being turned down, according to a school spokesman. The university's housing department staff chooses candidates based on their academic record and commitment to campus leadership. R. A.s are selected during the fall term of the previous academic year and then are required to take a class on community building. R. A.s are compensated with free room and board, which otherwise costs about $10,000 for the academic year.
"More so than anyone else on campus, you will meet and connect with so many students," Ms. Daniels said.
It was Day 2 of R.A. training and she and a few colleagues were outlining the university's student sexual misconduct policy.
This year, Ms. Daniels made her presentation not only to the R. A.s but also to the school's student-athletes, members of R.O.T.C., the marching band and the leaders of the school's Greek system, among others. "We go after groups that we know have influence on campus," she said in an interview.
While law enforcement agencies oversee their own investigations and prosecutions of reported incidents of sex crimes, the University of Michigan's policy lays out the school's definitions of sexual misconduct and its particular process when an incident has been reported to school officials, including R.A.s.
The R. A.s seem to grapple with the concept of their dual roles as students living among peers in a dorm and university staff with obligations. "What if someone tells you something before you've told them you're a mandatory reporter?" one student asked at the workshop. "Is it like Miranda rights?"
Ms. Daniels answered, "It's important that you tell your residents upfront that you are not confidential," explaining that a student who may have been harmed by an alleged act of sexual misconduct need not participate in an investigation.
During the next 90 minutes, Ms. Daniels and her cohort went over key themes: that an act of retaliation against a complainant who says she or he has been a victim of misconduct is itself a violation of the misconduct policy, that the Internet can be a tool of sexual misconduct, and that "intoxicated" people can consent to sexual contact but those "incapacitated" by excess drugs and alcohol cannot.
A student asked, "How do you determine the difference between intoxication and incapacitation?"
The answer was murky, underscoring how hard it is for adults, let alone college students, to identify clear lines. "Incapacitation is beyond intoxication, when you're unable to make informed judgment, just totally unable," Ms. Daniels said. "It's a case-by-case thing," she said, adding that she wished she could provide more clarity.
Into a world of many acronyms and mnemonic devices, the four Ds of bystander intervention were introduced: direct, distract, delegate and delay. The women leading the session explained the importance of R. A.s learning how to intervene (and teaching their dorm residents to intervene) in potentially harmful situations they may witness.
Different scenarios were posed, with students asking how they might respond. "You are at a party and see a man pulling someone who is obviously intoxicated up the stairs toward an empty room," went one example. The room buzzed as students offered ideas.
Photo Anna Forringer-Beal, 21, volunteers with the school's Sexual Assault Prevention and Awareness Center. Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times
One student suggested approaching the man carrying the other person and trying to distract him. "You could say, like, 'Hey, we're in psych class together,' " the student said.
The concept of intervention was not new to many students, and some were moved to share their own experiences.
One said that on a snowy night last year, she and a friend happened to drive by Rick's, a bar that bills itself on Twitter as "The #1 Hook up bar on college campuses!"
They spotted a woman stumbling down the sidewalk with a man. The friends called out to the woman and offered her a ride home.
The students snapped their approval.
R.A. training also deals with the concept of healthy sex.
That's the focus of "Relationship Remix," a program devoted to discussing consent as the key to a positive sexual relationship. Since 2004, all incoming Michigan students have been required to attend the seminar.
When students returned to Ann Arbor earlier this month, Anna Forringer-Beal, 21, helped facilitated two Remix discussions for about 80 students. A major in anthropology and women's studies, Ms. Forringer-Beal is both a volunteer for Sapac, the organization that provides confidential help to victims of sexual assault and misconduct, and an R.A. for the second year in a row.
"We focused a lot on a scenario where someone you're interested in asks you to go back to their room," she said. "I tried to get at the idea that consenting to go back to the room is all you're consenting to. Some people see it as an innuendo. I tried to explain that direct communication is the best communication so there is no room for ambiguity."
No one in campus life underestimates how trying life as a resident adviser can be, even as the R. A.s acknowledge its satisfacti ons.
"Self-care is important," Ms. Hong said. "You can burn out. But we all try to take care of one another. Someone at Sapac might give me some chocolates with a note that says, 'Thank you for all you do,' or I'll get Facebook or text messages, 'I just want you to know you're a great person.' We all do that. We know how hard it can be, but we know how important these issues are."
