By the time they reach the end of their senior years, one-third of female undergraduates at Washington University will have been the victim of some type of nonconsensual sexual contact, according to the most up-to-date, comprehensive figure.

Washington University was one of 27 colleges that participated in last spring’s Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct, which sought to measure the rates of incidence and prevalence of different forms of sexual assault, harassment, stalking and intimate partner violence.

For the bulk of the questions, Wash. U.’s results were at or near the national average, which administrators say is both unsurprising and indicative of the work that still needs to be done in improving prevention and support strategies on campus.

“Part of why we did the survey was to help make the conversations about this easier and more transparent so that we can get down to the work of doing something about it,” Provost Holden Thorp said.

Affirmative consent and social events

Traditionally, sexual assault is defined as that which is perpetrated by means of physical force or incapacitation. By this definition, 22.6 percent of female undergraduates have experienced this type of assault since matriculating to the University, with 12.7 percent having been victimized during the current school year. Around half of that larger group (11.9 percent) had experienced nonconsensual penetration.

Those numbers are consistent with previous surveys of the University population, Thorp said, suggesting their accuracy, and they also track with the commonly cited statistic that one in five female undergraduates will be sexually assaulted in their college careers.

But by expanding the definition of “nonconsensual” to include sexual contact due to coercion or absence of affirmative consent—both of which are against the student judicial code—the prevalence estimate increases to more than 30 percent of undergraduate females who have experienced nonconsensual sexual contact at the University, with the highest rate (33.3 percent) belonging to seniors.

This component is particularly important in a college population because most of the incidences of sexual assault of University students involve the absence of affirmative consent, Title IX Coordinator Jessica Kennedy said.

In the area of consent, Kim Webb, director of the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention Center, emphasized that the University needs to continue educating its students that consent cannot be given while incapacitated due to alcohol.

“There’s an undeniable correlation between alcohol and sexual assault, but we also know that alcohol doesn’t cause sexual assault,” she said.

Because the bulk of assaults occur at social events, Kennedy said that an expansion of the Green Dot bystander intervention program would be paramount to helping reduce the prevalence of assaults on campus.

“Bystander intervention is one of the most effective ways to prevent sexual assault,” she said. “We are always trying to have more folks on our campus—students, faculty, staff, everyone—be trained in that.”

On the survey, 63.5 percent of responding undergraduates said they had witnessed a drunken person headed for a sexual encounter, and 74.9 percent of the bystanders indicated they had done nothing.

In another question, 28.1 percent of undergraduates said they had witnessed someone acting in a sexually violent or harassing manner, with 53.1 percent of these bystanders doing nothing.

Differences among gender identities

Among populations other than female undergraduates, incidences of sexual assault varied widely. Male undergraduate students reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact at a lower rate than their female peers (7.5 percent due to physical force or incapacitation, 10 percent in the expanded definition).

Across both genders, graduate students also reported lower rates than undergraduates, which administrators largely attributed to the latter group living in close proximity and experiencing more social events together.

The survey also compared the male and female reports to those of transgender, genderqueer or nonconforming and questioning (TGQN) students, who reported much higher rates of nonconsensual sexual contact (37.4 percent due to physical force or incapacitation). Under the broader definition of “nonconsensual” involving coercion and absence of affirmative consent, 53.3 percent of TGQN undergraduates have experienced nonconsensual sexual contact during their college careers.

Around 50 percent of TGQN undergraduates on campus indicated they felt that sexual assault is very or extremely problematic at the University, compared to 20.4 percent of undergraduate females and 13.9 percent of undergraduate males. Because of the relatively small sample size of TGQN respondents, however, the survey results could not give extensive comparisons using the group’s data.

Webb highlighted this segment of the student population as one that has been made marginalized and more vulnerable, and both she and Kennedy said that a tangible outcome from the survey will be a rededication to addressing the needs of those groups.

“I find the results really instructive,” Kennedy said. “They really do give us a nice breakdown where we can look at them and say, OK, we focused here, now this is where we need to expend more of our energy in terms of sharing process, sharing resources, letting folks know what’s out there, and helping to build their confidence in the ability and the willingness of the University to address these issues.”

Mixed views on University leadership, campus resources

In judging the efficacy of a potential University response, female undergraduates indicated that they were less likely than males to trust campus officials to take accusations of sexual assault seriously and conduct a fair investigation.

Specifically, 62.9 percent of female undergraduates think campus officials would take reports seriously, and 48.6 percent think officials would conduct a fair investigation—both numbers slightly higher than the national average, Thorp noted.

“One thing we’re pleased to see is that the students believe we would take complaints seriously and they have a lot of confidence in the…processes that we have,” he said.

The administration needs to do more to inform students about the reporting and investigation process, Kennedy added.

“We see encouraging signs in these results, but in no way, shape or form are we resting on any laurel that might be here,” she said.

But Kennedy also pointed to the significant increase in cases being reported to campus authorities as evidence of growing student trust in those processes. According to the Clery Report, which annually documents crimes that occurred on campus, the number of reported sexual assaults at Washington University has increased from five in 2010 to 25 in 2013.

The relative lack of assaults recorded by the Clery Report as compared to the number of incidents that students indicated on the survey indicates that the crime is still vastly underreported, Webb said, but because the report only includes incidents that happen on University-owned property, Clery’s numbers don’t tell the whole story. However, the survey indicated that more than half of incidents involving an incapacitated victim or use of physical force occurred on campus or an affiliated property.

Beyond expanded Green Dot training and increased efforts to make students aware of official University policies and processes, Kennedy said that large-scale change would require a similarly large-scale shift in the mindset of college students nationwide.

“We’re working to be part of this larger cultural shift that we hope is happening now, and some of the changes are going to seem incrementally slow because of that,” she said.

A University task force created last fall to address these issues has recently submitted its report to the provost’s office. The recommendations made in that report will be discussed with the community on Thursday, Sept. 24, at 6 p.m. in Room 201 of Crow Hall, where University leaders will answer questions about the Campus Climate Survey.