Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of sexual violence. Resources and helplines can be found at the bottom of the piece.

WashU released the results of their 2024 Higher Education Sexual Misconduct and Awareness survey on Oct. 21, revealing a 4.4 percentage point decrease in student response rate compared to the last time it was administered, in 2019. This low completion rate reflects a lack of effort by WashU’s administration to collect this information, as well as a campus culture that doesn’t see sexual misconduct as a problem involving everyone. 

Of the 10 schools that participated in the study, WashU had the lowest response rate: 12.5%, which was 30.5 percentage points less than Stanford, the school with the highest response rate. ​

The survey found that, since entering WashU, 26.9% of surveyed undergraduate women reported experiencing sexual assault, compared to 35.1% in 2019. Of WashU respondents, roughly two times more undergraduate women filled out the survey than undergraduate me​​n.

In a statement to Student Life, the Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline (SARAH), a student-run counseling hotline, called the 12.5% response rate “dismal.” They drew two conclusions from this minimal number of responses: first, students may not have felt comfortable responding to the survey or did not know about it in the first place; second, the survey does not accurately represent relationship and sexual violence on campus.

“From our own experiences as both WashU students and peer counselors, we have been given no reason to believe that such a decrease [in sexual assaults against undergraduate women] reflects students’ experiences,” SARAH wrote.

Kim Webb, director of the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center, noted that the stigma that surrounds sexual misconduct is reflective of broader national culture, which minimizes instances of sexual misconduct. This invalidates people’s experiences of sexual violence, creating a campus culture that makes survivors less likely to report or share their experiences. 

The University needs accurate and thorough information about students’ experiences to combat sexual misconduct and change the campus culture. Surveys such as this one are essential to understanding the safety and culture of our campus, and with such a low response rate, the results do not paint an accurate picture of sexual violence at WashU. WashU therefore needs to reflect on the lack of awareness around the survey that contributed to low response rates. 

Some other universities included in the study—like Stanford and Harvard—offered incentives. These ranged from entering participants into a raffle where they could win a prize, offering a gift card as an incentive, or creating competitions between residential halls to promote student participation. The aggregate data of all 10 colleges showed that schools that offered incentives had higher student response rates, suggesting that WashU should consider implementing their own in the future.

While neither the RSVP Center nor SARAH were involved in the distribution or advertisement of the survey, SARAH expressed interest in helping promote it in the future to improve the response rate.

In a statement to Student Life, Beverly Wendland, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, wrote that she hoped for higher response rates in the future and that the University is actively seeking ways to improve them.

Wendland mentioned that WashU is hoping to establish focus groups in November to learn how students could best be approached for outreach to be most effective. These groups will discuss “survey engagement, response motivations, and how we can improve future effort.”

The low response rate does not only reflect a flawed methodology on the side of the University, but rather, also points to a lack of motivation on the side of students. 

Ultimately, although incentives and advertisement will increase students’ motivation, WashU students should participate in the survey in its own right. While it is understandable for survivors to opt out of filling out surveys regarding sexual misconduct if it is triggering or uncomfortable, students who do not face these barriers have a responsibility to do so. Sexual violence impacts our entire community, and participating in surveys like this one is essential to understanding the steps we need to take to combat sexual violence.

The gender gap in response rate displays another fault in our campus culture where men do not participate in discussions about sexual violence prevention to the same extent as women. The school and student-led groups can improve this by creating more programming aimed at men.

All students must participate in these conversations and campus-wide efforts about sexual violence prevention because it impacts all of us.

Student clubs and organizations can help increase student involvement by promoting surveys as well as facilitating conversations around sexual violence prevention. 

Both Webb, on behalf of the RSVP Center, and SARAH noted that the survey results should not be wholly disregarded, highlighting the 7 percentage point increase in undergraduate men who have experienced sexual assault, which Webb said has caused the RSVP Center to reconsider how they allocate their resources.

In the future, both SARAH and Webb hope to see more campus awareness of the survey and higher response rates.

“I do think we can do a better job advertising … We can do a better job of providing safe spaces for people to participate in the survey if they choose. And so I think that’s work that we need to look at moving forward,” Webb said.

Low response rates to sexual misconduct surveys are in large part due to the societal stigmatization, invalidation, and normalization of sexual violence, especially on college campuses. The fact that WashU had the lowest response rate of all schools, however, points to additional issues specific to the University. WashU’s administration must do more to collect information about students’ experiences of sexual violence. It’s everyone’s issue. Let’s act like it.

Staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of our editorial board members. The editorial board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the senior staff.

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The Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline (S.A.R.A.H) provides confidential and anonymous support and can be reached at 314-935-8080 24 /7 during the fall and spring academic semesters.

There are counselors at the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center, located in Seigle Hall, Suite 435, available confidentially to any University student. The office can be reached at tel:314-935-3445 or by email at mailto:[email protected].

The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at tel:1-800-656-4673 or via online chat at https://hotline.rainn.org/online 24/7.