FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – As a part of a continued effort to prevent sexual assault on campus, the University of Arkansas recently completed a campus-climate survey, designed to measure student attitudes, perspectives and experiences about sexual assault and sexual misconduct.

"The survey results allow us to measure campus perceptions and help provide the specific information we need to enhance our efforts to prevent and respond to incidents of campus sexual assault and other forms of sexual misconduct," said Tyler Farrar, Title IX Coordinator for the university. "The more information we get from students and the more we can create an open dialogue about these issues, the better we can address these concerns."

"Sexual assault and misconduct are taken very seriously at the University of Arkansas," Chancellor Joe Steinmetz said. "It's not an easy subject to discuss, which makes it altogether even more important for us to gauge student perceptions and experiences in order to better align resources, from training and counseling to reporting and intervening. Learning that some students may not clearly understand what constitutes sexual assault and misconduct is a starting point to give us shared language so we can better shape prevention programs."

"Further, it's clear from the survey results that we need to do a better job letting students know resources that are available to them and also that the university is very serious about preventing sexual assault and misconduct," he said.

More than 2,800 students (roughly 10 percent of the student body) participated in the confidential survey, created and administered by Everfi, the provider of the campus' sexual assault and misconduct online training modules. A majority of participants in the U of  A survey were undergraduate students (82.1%), between the ages of 18-21 (66.5%), female (67.3%), white (89.4%), and described themselves as living off-campus (66.9%). While the respondents are not a statistically representative sample of the student body, the survey results indicate some areas of concern the university can address.

Sexual assault is defined as an actual or attempted sexual contact with another person without that person's consent. The university's sexual-assault-and-sexual harassment policy (Fayetteville Policies and Procedures 418.1) provides a more detailed definition of sexual assault and includes other definitions pertaining to sexual misconduct and sexual harassment, as well as information about the reporting process, training, responsibility to report, preserving evidence, availability of counseling and advocacy, education-and-awareness programs, bystander intervention, informal- and formal-resolution processes and more.

Perceptions of Campus Climate

The survey showed that a majority of participants have a positive perspective about campus safety. Most survey respondents (82.6%) indicated they agree or strongly agree that they feel safe at the university.

While the majority of the students surveyed expressed that they feel safe, many of the participants also believe that sexual violence is a problem on campus and that they should do more themselves to learn about sexual violence. A majority of respondents (59.3%) disagreed at some level with the statement, "I don't think sexual violence is a problem at my school" while 54.7% agreed at some level to the statement, "Sometimes I think I should learn more about sexual violence."

Despite the university's attempts to encourage bystander intervention related to preventing sexual assault and misconduct, less than half of the survey participants (45.1%) indicated that they would say something to a friend who is taking a drunk person to their room. A majority of survey participants (72.5%) stated they are very likely to cease sexual activity when asked to.

Most participants showed an understanding of the combined effort it takes to help prevent sexual violence on campus. A majority of respondents (82.6%) disagreed at some level that "doing something about sexual violence is solely the job of campus administrators" but a significant number of students, nearly one-third of survey respondents (33.1%), expressed that university officials could be doing more to protect students from harm.

Two-thirds of the survey (66.5%) respondents stated that they believe faculty are genuinely concerned with their welfare while slightly more than half (50.7%) of the respondents indicated that they believe the university administration cares about their welfare.

Education and Prevention Training

Of the 1,950 students who answered the survey questions related to training, 61.6 percent reported receiving training or attending programs on sexual misconduct prevention, but approximately one-quarter of participants indicated that they haven't received training about sexual assault prevention (24%), training about behaviors that define sexual assault (24.5%), or don't know about the availability of on-campus resources related to sexual violence (28.4%). A little over one-third of respondents (37.61%) also reported not receiving training about the procedures the university utilizes to investigate sexual assault reports.

Online training focused on sexual assault education and prevention is now required for all new students at the University of Arkansas including freshmen and transfer students. New students must now complete an education-and-prevention program online before being allowed to enroll in the following semester. This mandatory education and prevention effort was implemented in the fall of 2016.

"We hope that the mandatory training, added to the many educational events held on campus throughout the year will make a real difference in the reduction of sexual assault," Farrar said.

The university seeks to foster a safe living, learning, and working environment for all members of the campus community and provides and supports educational programming that addresses all aspects of sexual misconduct including sexual harassment, sexual assault, sexual exploitation, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

STAR Central, part of the Pat Walker Health Center, coordinates campus education and awareness programs about all forms of sexual misconduct. Programs are presented regularly throughout the academic year in residence halls, fraternities, sororities and for other student organizations, academic classes, and in other settings that are likely to reach people across campus. A peer education group, Rape Education Services by Peers Encouraging Conscious Thought (RESPECT), provides sexual assault awareness, education, and prevention programs for students by students.

In addition, several educational activities are underway or planned on campus in April as a part of sexual-assault-awareness month. 

Prohibited Sexual Contact

Out of 2,830 survey participants, 266 (15%) indicated that they have experienced sexual contact of some kind without consent after becoming a student at the university with alcohol being involved in the vast majority of these incidents. This percentage is slightly higher than the 13.6 percent of respondents reported by Everfi as a part of its national data compilation that includes responses from more than 50 institutions.

More than a fifth (22.3%) of those participating in the university's campus-climate survey reported having experienced sexual contact without consent prior to becoming a student at the university, compared to 23 percent of respondents who reported this experience as a part of Everfi's national data compilation.

Forty-two participants in the university's campus-climate survey stated that they are certain someone has had sexual contact with them when they were unable to give consent since the beginning of the current academic year. Twenty-seven participants stated that they believe but do not know for sure that someone may have had sexual contact with them when they were unable to give consent during the same period.

Of those who selected a factor involved in not being able to give consent, 96.6 percent stated that alcohol was involved during the incident. Eighteen participants reported that they were given a drug without their consent prior to the incident. Of those answering a question related to identifying the type of relationship they had with the person forcing unwanted sexual contact on them, 117 indicated the person was either an acquaintance (66) or "non-romantic friend" (51) while 47 indicated that the person was a stranger.

Reporting of Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct 

Less than half of the respondents (43.2%) stated that they agree or strongly agree that they know where to get help regarding sexual assault while 47.9 percent indicated that they disagree or strongly disagree that they know how to report sexual assault.

When asked to select their preferences for reporting sexual misconduct, participants listed UAPD (59.52%), Fayetteville Police Department (43.76%), Title IX Coordinator (38.48%), and the Pat Walker Health Center (31.79%) as their top choices.

The university recently introduced an online resource devoted to helping students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors report sexual misconduct, non-emergency student concerns, code or student-life violations and other potential threats or concerns to campus safety. A link to the site, report.uark.edu, is now included as a part of the footer at the bottom of all uark.edu webpages.

Survey participants were asked to consider whether the university would take their report seriously if they reported a sexual assault. More than two thirds of respondents (68.55%) stated that they believe it's likely to very likely that the university would take their report seriously, which closely aligns to the national response of 69.6 percent.

A much smaller number of student respondents (3.9%) to the university's campus-climate survey indicated that they do not think it is likely at all that the university would take their report seriously.

Fifty-two percent of respondents have confidence that university administration will follow procedures necessary to address sexual assault while 21.4 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed to that statement. Nationally, the response to the same question suggests a slightly higher confidence rate (55.6%) of students who feel their campus would follow necessary procedures.

Survey Benefits and Next Steps

The university will use the survey results to improve its education and prevention efforts related to sexual assault and sexual misconduct. The university's Title IX Sexual Assault Response Team (S.A.R.T) Advisory Committee, will continue to review the survey findings as it considers all options to enhance the safety and security of students and the entire University of Arkansas campus community. The S.A.R.T Committee is a collaboration that includes campus leaders who have formal responsibilities for various prevention, training, and reporting initiatives, and those who have expressed an interest in these initiatives. The S.A.R.T. Advisory Committee is chaired by the University's Title IX Coordinator and meets at least once per academic semester, or as needed.

About Everfi Aggregate Data and the Survey: The survey administered by Everfi is the same instrument used on many other campuses, which allows participating institutions to gauge the national context of their results. While not all institutions use all of the same questions, the Everfi report combines the data from more than 50 four-year institutions yielding 25,263 participants. This data can be used to understand where an institution stands compared to the average institution. In general, data from climate surveys can help institutions define the unique needs and strengths of their students and set appropriate goals by providing a deeper understanding of attitudes, behaviors, and experiences related to sexual assault and relationship violence.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.