Dive Brief:
- Results from the Association of American Universities’ climate surveys at 27 institutions include findings that sexual violence touches one in five college students.
- The Huffington Post reports aggregate data shows about one in 10 female student respondents have experienced penetration by force or incapacitation, and only about 25% of them report their attacks.
- While some of the results simply confirm previous data, the AAU survey may become a launchpad from which to discuss affirmative consent as 11.4% of female undergrads and almost 15% of LGBTQ students reported experiencing serious sexual violence because their partners didn’t ask whether they could proceed.
Dive Insight:
The AAU study surveyed the experiences of 150,000 students at elite public and private colleges and universities. Its report on the aggregate data was released Monday. The release of more localized data is at the discretion of individual institutions, which will decide how much to share about their own campuses and students’ experiences.
The report's release coincided with news that the University of Virginia had a “mixed record” handling sexual assault cases. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights found that UVA violated Title IX.