A sweet treat tagged with a positive message is just the latest element of Healthy Relationships, an initiative to raise awareness of potentially fraught interactions among students living in Cornell’s North Campus and Collegetown residential communities.

Healthy Relationships is part of the CORE (“Community Respect”) resident adviser program – now in its second year – which seeks to provide supplemental training to a select group of residence advisers. Those RAs received a full day of training early in the semester and meet every three weeks throughout the school year.

“We focus on trying to make students craft a critical lens to be cognizant of things in our society that nuance violence and bias,” said Theoria Cason, residence hall director of Ujamaa Residential College, who helps to supervise the CORE RAs with Joseph Burke, associate dean of students and director of residential and new student programs.

Cason compiled music videos, message board posts and other examples – some specific to Cornell – from social media “that suggested that some behaviors are permissible or acceptable when in fact they promote a lack of civility in our communities,” she said.

The training also aimed to promote a sense of awareness among the CORE RAs. “We wanted to empower them to be an ‘active bystander,’” Cason said. “If you see something, say something. If you think it’s inappropriate or counterproductive to creating a sense of community, then you have a responsibility to highlight that and then address that behavior.”

In February 2014 – to coincide with Valentine’s Day – the CORE RAs implemented the Healthy Relationships program by hanging posters in their communities. “It was a way to proactively engage residents to think about how to have healthy relationships and to be mindful of how to clearly communicate consent for any stage of a relationship of any type,” Cason explained.

This fall, via a Healthy Relationships program, the CORE RAs seek to get residents to talk about the important elements of respectful relationships. “Our goal is to include all relationships: friendships, roommates, floor mates, as well as romantic relationships,” Burke said.

As part of the program, residents were given a sweet treat that was bagged and tagged with a quote about cultivating healthy relationships with others. Examples included “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face” by Eleanor Roosevelt  and “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them” by Maya Angelou.

“It’s very lighthearted,” Cason said. “The CORE RAs hand-delivered them within their communities, and when they do, they can engage with the residents around the topic. We’re trying to set the standard early in the year that this is the expectation of how you should engage with one another in a community, and these are things we should talk about.”

“Many of the [CORE RAs] reported that their programs were well received,” Burke said, adding that residents appreciated the treats, quotes and the opportunity to talk about healthy relationships.

Burke and Cason have made a long-term commitment to the program, knowing that the effort must be sustained over time to be successful.

“Part of what we are trying to do is change the culture, and we know that attitudes and behaviors are created or reinforced by peers,” Burke said. “The CORE RAs are working to find ways to have meaningful conversations about how to treat each other with dignity and respect. Collectively, the CORE RAs are a wonderful group to work with, and we greatly appreciate their efforts.”

Jim Catalano is a writer for Student and Academic Services.