UC Athletics B.E.A.R.S. Series
Bears for
Equity
Allyship
Respect and
Service
The UC Athletics B.E.A.R.S. Series is a set of programs that feature different educational opportunities in various areas that support our collective impact with the goal of helping our student-athletes become more well-rounded individuals. Topics include, but are not limited to: diversity, equity, and inclusion, mental health, sustainability, healthy relationships, and substance abuse prevention. Each academic year, teams are encouraged to complete at least one of the listed programs and one community service initiative (however, they are welcome to do as many as they would like!).
The options for this year’s B.E.A.R.S. Series are listed below. Once you’ve completed your B.E.A.R.S. series program, fill out the B.E.A.R.S. Series completion form. You can access this form by clicking
here. This completion form is also housed in the “In-Service” Teams group in Microsoft Teams. Information on your completed community service initiatives will be collected later on in the year, so please be sure that you are keeping track. Finally, as coaches, the expectation is for you to participate in these programs/workshops with your team. Use these moments as opportunities to model the behaviors/habits we hope to instill within the student-athletes, and to also strengthen your connections with the various members of your teams! As always, please reach out with any clarifying questions or concerns. Go Bears!
UC Athletics B.E.A.R.S. Series 2025-2026 Options
Bucket #1 – Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Option #1: DEI workshop with your team facilitated by the Institute for Inclusion and Equity (IIE) Staff
- Choose one of the workshops below that you would like the IIE staff to facilitate with your team
- Intercultural Development Inventory
- What Will I Do? Social Justice Activism
- Conscious Communication
- Developing an Equity Lens
- Honoring Pronouns and Gender Identity
- What Should Matter to Me: Understanding Privilege, Empathy, and Intersectionality
- Navigating Challenging Conversations
- Building Empowerment and Understanding - Individual Reflection/ Personal Action Plan
- LGBTQIA Awareness: Beyond Allyship
- Exploring Implicit Bias, Microaggressions, and Bystander Intervention
- Moving Beyond Diversity: Inclusive Leadership
- To schedule your workshop, please click here to fill out the form to submit your request with the IIE staff.
- ***If there’s a specific DEI area or topic not listed that you would like the IIE staff to do a workshop on, please reach out to Annie Bryant, Assistant Director of Institute for Inclusion and Equity, at abryant@ursinus.edu. ***
Bucket #2 – Sustainability
Option: Team workshop with Office of Sustainability Staff
- Choose one of the workshops below that you would like the Office of Sustainability staff to facilitate with your team:
- Does Ursinus Really Recycle? (Time Length 45 minutes): Rumors persist throughout the years that Ursinus really does not recycle items placed in recycle bins. In reality, Ursinus does recycle items placed in recycling bins! In this workshop, Office of Sustainability takes a look at recycling on campus, explains recycling, answers questions from the team and listens to concerns. No one is going to be judged for their recycling habits and the goal of this workshop is to encourage students to become more empowered in their community. To set up a time, please email Kate Keppen at kkeppen@ursinus.edu. (Workshop is supported with PowerPoint and interactive discussion activities).
- Are you a Green Bear? (Time Length: Survey with a 35 minute workshop). Team fills out a Green Living Certification Qualtrics Survey at the beginning of the workshop. Participants will need to check off "green" actions that they take in a number of different areas in life: waste & recycling, energy use, water, transportation, food, and more. Results are tabulated and provided to the student in various levels of bear species. Ranking as a Grizzly Bear signifies that their actions are the most sustainable/green! The workshop will be an interactive discussion about sustainability at Ursinus College. FYI: A friendly competition between coaches/teams can be set up for “Greenest Team!” To set up a time, please email Kate Keppen at kkeppen@ursinus.edu. (35 minute workshop is supported with PowerPoint and interactive discussion).
Bucket #3 – Healthy Relationships and Title IX
Option #1: Have your team attend the Domestic Violence Prevention Symposium on campus on Friday, October 3rd
- Former NFL player, Troy Vincent, will be speaking about building resilience and working to end relationship violence
Option #2: Team workshop with the Office of Title IX Staff
- Choose one of the workshops below that you would like the Office of Title IX staff to facilitate with your team:
- Real Man/Strongest Man Workshop (45 min to 1hour): This workshop is an exercise in examining how we view masculinity and challenges participants to reexamine their owns views about what it means to be a “Real Man”. We use a combination of real life well-know people and our own personal role models to examine how men show up in the world. Through this workshop, participants will learn to:
- Identify dominant traits that are associated with traditional notions of masculinity.
- Recognize traits associated with the dominant story of masculinity within themselves and begin to evaluate the pressure exerted to be considered a “real man”.
- Recognize counter stories of masculinity and strength in their environments.
- Connect traditional masculinity with the prevalence of sexual assault.
- Continuum of Harm Against Women (45 minutes to 1 hour): While we can all agree that rape is wrong, we can also acknowledge that sexual violence is prevalent in our society. The real challenge is not simply deciding that rape is wrong, the challenge is figuring our how to stop it. In this workshop, we examine rape culture, defined as social attitudes that have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse. We show how rape culture allows and permits violence to occur, and how we all contribute to the normalization of sexual violence, particularly how it’s prevalent on sports team. We then discuss strategies to combat rape culture and ultimately how we can treat women with dignity and respect.
Option #2: Team workshop with the Peer advocates
- Choose one of the workshops below that you would like the Peer Advocates to facilitate with your team:
- How to Help a Friend: Responding to Disclosures of Title IX Workshop (45 min): Participants will understand the importance of responding to others with compassion and empathy when learning about situations involving Title IX - which include sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking. The workshop utilizes two interactive activities and will leave participants with a handout providing tips and specific resources to be an active bystander.
- My Name Isn't Baby: Catcalling Workshop (45 min): Participants will articulate the definition of street harassment along with examples of what constitutes it and why minimizing it contributes to and perpetuates rape culture. Through viewing a short video clip, participants will reflect on the impact of catcalling, including the added impact for marginalized populations, and identify various ways to be an active bystander in a situation involving catcalling. (This workshop can also be done without the use of technology by eliminating the 7 min video and discussion - bringing the workshop to 30 min)
- Throw Like a Girl: Rape Culture Workshop (45 min): Participants will identify specific attitudes, beliefs, statements, and behaviors that contribute to the degradation of women in our society through utilizing Lysak's Rape Culture Pyramid. Participants will discuss in pairs, as a group, and spend time journaling on their own to truly consider the ways we all can be active bystanders in situations where rape culture is being perpetuated.
- How to Be the Solution: Bystander Intervention Workshop (45 min): Participants will identify the 5 steps and 3 D's of bystander intervention and reflect on which intervention technique would work best in various situations and contexts. Through a short video, the group will dissect how to be an active bystander in situations involving alcohol overdose, hazing, dating violence, sexual assault, and mental health/suicidality. The 3 D buttons will be given away to all participants!
- That's Not Love: Dating Violence Workshop (45 min): Participants will start with a Bingo activity to reflect on the common cultural responses to catcalling and street harassment and consider the impacts of those automatic responses. Reviewing the green flags and red flags in relationships will take place through another activity to ensure participants can identify behaviors of concern for self or others. Finally, a video and discussion will wrap up the session by connecting bystander intervention techniques to this topic.
- Building a Better Life: Boundaries Workshop (45 min): Participants will be able to identify various types of boundaries and the different types of relationships where boundaries are important. Through a video and a practice activity, participants will be able to write out and practice setting boundaries and understand how to address others who violate their boundaries.
- Consent and the Red Zone(30 min): Participants will reflect on what consent means through the Cycling Through Consent video and discussion. Engaging in a snowball activity, participants will ask any questions they have about consent before learning about the Red Zone and why the first 6-10 weeks of the semester are the most risky on campus; more than 50% of sexual assaults on campus occur in Aug/Sept/Oct.
- **To schedule one of these workshops with the Peer Advocates, please email Dan Kelly at dkelly@ursinus.edu.
Bucket #4 – Prevention, Advocacy, and Mental Health
Option #1: Know the Odds: Protect Your Brain From the Pull of Sports Gambling
- Sunday, September 7th at 12pm in Olin Auditorium
- Doors open at 11:45am - There will be free pizza!
Option #2: Team workshop led by the Peer Advocates (Who are trained by Katie Bean!)
- Developing Healthy Habits (45 mins.): Learn about the 6 dimensions of wellness and consider their own self-care strategies within those dimensions before setting goals and making an action plan to improve their overall well-being.
- BAC on the Brain (30 mins.): Participants will be able to identify the various signs of alcohol intoxication and the impacted parts of the brain to understand warning signs of when help is needed. The workshop will also review signs of overdose and the Good Samaritan Law and Policy.
- Everything you need to know about Registered Events (30 mins.): Participants will engage in a few activities to learn the culture and rules around registered events on campus. They will leave with an understanding of respect and what to do as a guest if something goes wrong at an event.
- **To schedule one of these workshops, please click here.
Option #3: Choose one of the workshops below that you would like Katie Bean to facilitate with your team:
- Allies of Recovery Training Certification Training (2 hours)/Or a condensed version not providing certification but still educational (60 min): This training will review society's stigma associated with substance use disorders and build empathy for the people impacted by it. We'll detail the warning signs of SUD and use scenarios to discuss how to help a friend. This is a great training if you have students in recovery on the team.
- Well-being for People, Place, and Planet (30 min): As an adoptee of the Okanagan Charter, Ursinus aims to enhance the well-being of People, Places, and the Planet in systems and settings-based public health approaches. We'll review what this means and discover ways all students can take an active part in leading this effort.
Option #4: Watch a Breathe & Be video as a group on your own - videos made by Katie Bean
- Breathe & Be (20-30 min): There is a whole academic years' worth of videos to watch that will lead students through breathing exercises, seated stretches and end with a meditation - all found on the UC Health Promotion website.
Bucket #5 – Championship Performance
Option: Team workshop on student-athlete mental performance with Ursinus Psychology Professor, Dr. Bryan Blum.
- Choose one of the 1-hour long workshops below that you would like Dr. Bryan Blum to facilitate with your team:
- Mindfulness Training: This workshop teaches athletes how to be present, calm, and focused during competition. Goals for this session are to increase mental performance skills to increase confidence and reduce performance anxiety via mindfulness techniques.
- Visualization Training: This workshop teaches athletes how to visualize success during performance. Goals for this session are to increase mental performance skills to increase confidence and reduce performance anxiety via visualization skills.
- Positive Self Talk: This workshop teaches athletes how to increase positive attitudes and resiliency during poor performances. Goals for this session are to increase mental performance skills to increase confidence and reduce performance anxiety via positive self-talk skills.
- **To schedule one of these workshops, please email Dr. Bryan Blum at bblum@ursinus.edu.
Bucket #6 – It's On You!
If you have your own program/initiative that fits into one of the topics/buckets that you would like to plan for your team during the semester, please let me know.
Community Service
- All teams must complete at least one community service initiative per semester.
