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Sometimes, attending to the unwanted “details” of our social culture—like a negative stereotype or an offhand comment—can feel like an unnecessary luxury. We may feel it is more important to address violence and coercion directly. But those everyday negative interactions provide camouflage for violence and coercion. When disrespect and disregard are normalized, it becomes more difficult to see them escalating into behaviors that are undeniably harmful.

In contrast, when communities expect respect and mutuality, it is much easier to spot behaviors that go against that norm. By challenging casual disrespect when we see it—and setting up conversations so that disrespect does not emerge in the first place—we can build communities where everyone expects to be treated well. Students, faculty, and staff can all ensure that everyday conversations reflect core community values of respect and kindness.

A positive culture is the best protection against sexual violence. Cultural and organizational change may seem like an ambitious goal, but the evidence shows that it’s achievable. That’s according to Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (Broadway Business, 2010), by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, which examines individual, organizational, and societal transformations.

This means that even small actions can have a big impact in building a safe, supportive campus culture. By ensuring that their conversations about romance, sex, and social life are respectful, students can help to dismantle “the cultural scaffolding” of assault. Individual students can transform campus culture by subtly shifting the tone of conversations with their peers. Faculty and staff can support and praise students who strive to build more respectful conversations, and they can model it themselves.

Here’s how to get started

• Students can reduce “ambient pressure”—a feeling that you must act a certain way in order to fit in—by modeling that students make diverse choices about social life.
• Similarly, faculty and staff can ask questions that open up new options for student conversations. Avoid assumptions that all students are behaving the same way, and give students opportunities to share their diverse social choices with one another.
• If you hear students engaging in disrespectful, stereotyping, or pressuring conversations, intervene. Ask questions of your own that invite kinder and more thoughtful discussion.
• At an institution, work to define and share a clear vision for what you want campus culture to look like. What are your values, and what concrete steps can you take to live them out?
• Encourage student groups and communities to identify their own core values, and to plan events and interactions that reflect these values.
• Cultivate a shared “growth mind-set”: the belief that the effort to build a positive culture will be effective and worthwhile, and that setbacks are part of the process.

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Student loan debt isn’t the only deficit students have to worry about—sleep debt can also leave them feeling depleted. “Sleep debt is an accumulation of sleep deprivation,” says Dr. Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist in California and fellow of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. It’s a big issue: Nearly 70 percent of college students reported that they sleep less than eight hours a night, according to a 2010 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Sleep problems rank third on students’ list of issues that affect their academic success, according to the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment (Fall 2016).

Sleep debt can affect students’ overall mental, physical, and emotional health, including:

Academic performance Students who are sleep deprived struggle more academically and are at a higher risk of failing compared with those who are getting enough rest on a consistent basis, says a 2014 study in Nature and Science of Sleep. “Sleep deprivation affects cognitive function directly and quickly,” says Dr. Breus.

Mood Female college students who reported nightly sleep debts of two hours or more were significantly more likely to report depressive symptoms than those with smaller debts, a 2010 study in Psychiatry Research found.

Short of physically putting students to bed each night, how can administrators, faculty, and staff build a campus that promotes healthy sleep rather than one that glamorizes all-nighters? Here are some places to start:   

Spread sleep hygiene awareness

Only a quarter of students report that they’re getting information from their colleges about healthy sleep habits, according to the National College Health Assessment (Fall 2016). But over 60 percent of students say they want that information. To close the gap, launch a public awareness campaign and train student leaders and staff to share strategies for building healthy sleep habits. A semester-long study at Macalester College in Minnesota, found that students who received sleep health information from campus staff two or three times throughout the semester reported fewer negative sleep habits.

Offer a sleep course

Creating a class about sleep is a way to boost students’ sleep hygiene. Stanford University in California created a course dedicated to sleep behaviors back in the 1970s. Today, it’s so popular there’s a wait list. Based on Stanford’s success, New York University, the University of Missouri, and others have implemented similar courses. And so can you.

Educate your educators

Campus staff can sometimes be in the best position to spot widespread sleep deprivation, so don’t stop the awareness campaign with students. Train college professionals to be able to provide information to students and intervene if they notice their students are routinely nodding off in class.

Create a sleep-friendly space on campus

Studies show that students who take more naps do better in class. College students with GPAs of 3.5 and higher were much more likely to be nappers than were their peers with lower GPAs in a 2010 study in Sleep and Breathing. With that in mind, nap pods, library cots, and special nap rooms on campus are becoming more popular. Schools like the University of Michigan and James Madison University in Virginia have established campus nap zones to make it easier for students to practice good sleep habits with the same diligence they approach good study habits.

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