O Magazine: Ah Men!
Issue: June 2005

The Good Guys

If you think these four are cute now, wait till you hear what they're doing

During his sophomore year at the College of William & Mary, Nick Reiter had a friend who asked him to come to her dorm room-her roommate had just been raped by another student, and the women were scared to be alone. "I went over there and told her that she just had to say the word and my fraternity brothers and I would beat the crap out of the guy," says Reiter. The victim, frightened by his reaction, asked him to leave. He realized he had no idea how to help her.

The following year, Reiter joined One in Four, a peer-education rape-prevention program founded by William & Mary professor John Foubert. Foubert created the organization-whose name derives from a nationwide study found that one out of four college women has survived rape or attempted rape since her 14th birthday-to circumvent the pitfalls of similar, less effective programs. Instead of approaching all men as possible rapists, Foubert trains male volunteers to give seminars that reach out to the (mostly male) audiences as potential supporters of survivors. The method works. In postseminar surveys, 100 percent of audience members report a drastic change in attitude and long-term decreased likelihood of raping. One college saw a near one-third decline in sexual assault on campus after setting up a One in Four group. For schools that don't have their own chapter, the One in Four RV Team-consisting of Reiter and three other William & Mary grads, all of them 22 or 23 years old-road-trip in a 37-foot Fleetwood to deliver their message to colleges, athletic conferences, and military academies. "We often think about the ripple effect," says Reiter's teammate Matt Roosevelt. We're not just educating students-we're educating future doctors, lawyers, and jurors."

- J.V.