Report on the AAU Campus Climate Surevey on Sexual Assault And
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Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct Authors David Cantor, Westat Gail Thomas, Westat Bonnie Fisher, University of Cincinnati Hyunshik Lee, Westat Susan Chibnall, Westat Vanessa Kranz, Westat Shauna Harps, Westat Randy Herbison, Westat Reanne Townsend, Westat Kristin Madden, Westat October 15, 2019 Embargoed_10/15/19 Prepared for: Prepared by: The Association of American Universities Westat An Employee-Owned Research Corporation® 1600 Research Boulevard Rockville, Maryland 20850-3129 (301) 251-1500 Acknowledgements The Association of American Universities (AAU) Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct required collaboration among all the parties concerned. The project could not have moved forward without the support of the Presidents of the 33 participating schools. AAU provided steadfast leadership and guidance by Mary Sue Coleman, AAU President, as well as the AAU team of Kimberlee Eberle- Sudré, Samiksha Shetty, Meara O’Malley, Pedro Ribeiro, Rob Marus, Jillian Gates, Tobin Smith, Matt Owens, Katie Steen, Mollie Benz Flounlacker, Jessica Sebeok, Leah Norton, and Andrew Parrish. The design was a collaboration with the members of the Survey Design Team (SDT) and the participating schools. Comments on the 2015 and 2019 questionnaires were provided by representatives of each participating school. The SDT met weekly, and sometimes twice weekly, to develop the final questionnaire and consider the comments provided by the schools. Often working under pressure, SDT members approached their work in a collegial manner, respecting the opinions of their colleagues, even while sometimes disagreeing. SDT members included Kellie Brennan (The Ohio State University), Brian Cook (Stanford University), Robert Coulter, (University of Pittsburgh), Marne K. Einarson and Madelyn Wessel (Cornell University), Karen Heimer (University of Iowa), Marlena Holden and Nora Cate Schaeffer (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Jagruti Patel (The Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Audrey Pettifor (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill), Liam Schwartz and Nicole Merhill (Harvard University), Lara Stemple (University of California-Los Angeles), and Min Xie (University of Maryland-College Park). A very special thanks to Lily Svensen (Yale University) and Christina Morell (University of Virginia) on their willingness to take on the challenging role of committee co-chairs. In addition to SDT members’ active engagement in the survey’s design and implementation processes, a number of individuals made invaluable contributions to the study. These individuals include Kelley Adams (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Emily Babb (University of Virginia), Melanie Boyd (Yale University), Gustavo Burkett (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), La-Tarri Canty (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Nancy Deutsch (University of Virginia), Erin Driver-Linn (Harvard University),Embargoed_10/15/19 Abigail Francis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Jamie Leonard (University of Virginia), Kate McCarthy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Kathleen Monagle (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Sarah Rankin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Sarah Robinson Schultz (University of Virginia), Karen Singleton (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Albert Wang (Harvard University), and Leah Whitehouse (Harvard University). Most importantly, we would like to thank the students who completed the survey, without whom this study would not have been possible. Report on the AAU Climate Survey on iii Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct Embargoed_10/15/19 Report on the AAU Climate Survey on iv Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct Glossary of Terms Hereinafter in this report, the following terms will be used when describing survey results: Coercion refers to when someone threatened serious non-physical harm or promised rewards to make an individual do something they did not want to do (e.g., threatening to give the individual bad grades or cause trouble for the person at work; promising good grades or a promotion at work; threatening to share damaging information about the individual with his or her family, friends, or authority figures; or threatening to post damaging information about the person online). Current school year refers to the academic year beginning with the Fall 2018 term. Inability to consent or stop what was happening refers to when the student was unable to consent or stop what was happening because they were passed out, asleep, or incapacitated due to alcohol or drugs. Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to non-sexual violence among individuals who had been in a partnered relationship (i.e., marriage or civil union, domestic partnership or cohabitation, steady or serious relationship, or other ongoing relationship involving physical or sexual contact). Offender and perpetrator are used interchangeably in this report to denote an individual who victimized a respondent with any of the forms of sexual assault or misconduct studied. Oral sex occurs when someone’s mouth or tongue makes contact with someone else’s genitals. Partnered relationship refers to a marriage or civil union, domestic partnership or cohabitation, steady or serious relationship, or other ongoing relationship involving physical or sexual contact that the student has been in since entering school. Physical force refers to the use of force or threats of physical force against an individual. Physical force could include someone using their body weight to hold the person down, pinning their arms, hitting or kicking them, or using or threatening to use a weapon against them. Sexual harassment refers to behaviors with sexual connotations that interfered with an individual’s academic or professional performance, limited the individual’s ability to participate in an academic program, or created an intimidating, hostile, or offensive social, academic, or work environment. Sexual penetration occurs when one person puts a penis, fingers, or object inside someone else’s vagina or anus. Sexual touchingEmbargoed_10/15/19 refers to kissing; touching someone’s breast, chest, crotch, groin, or buttocks; or grabbing, groping, or rubbing against another person in a sexual way, even if the touching is over the other person’s clothes. Since entering school refers to the period that starts when the student was first enrolled at the school and ends at the time of taking the survey. Stalking refers to repeated (two or more occasions) visual or physical proximity, nonconsensual communication, or verbal, written, or implied threats by an individual that leads to fear for personal safety or substantial emotional distress. Report on the AAU Climate Survey on v Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct TGQN, TGQN students, and TGQN respondents in this report are used interchangeably and denote students who listed their gender identity as one of the following categories: Transgender woman, Transgender man, Nonbinary/genderqueer, Gender questioning, or Gender not listed. Victim in this report denotes a student who experienced any of the different types of sexual assault or misconduct asked about in the survey. Without voluntary agreement refers to sexual contact that occurs without the individual’s active, ongoing voluntary agreement (e.g., initiating sexual activity despite the person’s refusal; ignoring cues to stop or slow down, went ahead without checking in or while the person was still deciding; otherwise failed to obtain the person’s consent). Embargoed_10/15/19 Report on the AAU Climate Survey on vi Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct Executive Summary This report represents the second iteration of a major effort by the Association of American Universities (AAU) to examine the prevalence of, and assess the campus climate regarding, sexual assault and misconduct at colleges and universities. The goal of these surveys is to gather as much information about the issue as possible to help inform member schools as they create policies and strategies to combat sexual assault and misconduct on their campuses. In 2015, AAU and 27 of its member schools designed and implemented a survey on sexual assault, other misconduct, and the campus climate. The resulting study continues to be widely cited in both the popular and scientific literature. In 2018, AAU assembled 33 schools to participate in a similar effort in the spring of 2019 as a follow-up to the 2015 survey. For those who participated in the 2015 AAU survey and others who had implemented the AAU survey on their own, the 2019 survey provided a means to track trends for key types of victimization and climate outcomes. This year’s survey was the largest of its kind, with 181,752 students out of a total student sample size of 830,936 completing the survey. That represents a significant increase over the 150,072 respondents to the 2015 survey. It also represented a broad mix of students and institutions: • 108,221 undergraduate respondents and 73,531 graduate and professional respondents; • 95,975 respondents from private institutions and 85,777 respondents from public institutions; • One of the largest sample sizes of self-identified transgender, non-binary, and other TGQN students ever studied, with 1.7 percent of respondents selecting a TGQN category and 0.6 percent selecting “decline to state” for their gender category. The survey found significant levels of sexual misconduct on campus, disparities in the prevalence of sexual misconduct among different categories of students, and changes from the 2015 results in student