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Climate Surveys

In an effort to monitor the extent of campus sexual assault, many colleges have implemented “climate surveys” of students. The survey developers typically avoid using the words “rape” and “assault.” Instead, they ask if the students experienced any types of sexual contact, and if these contacts were “unwanted.” The problem with the word “unwanted” is that a student may have engaged in sexual activities that were fully consensual, with the hope of establishing a long-term social relationship. But if the relationship does not work out, the student may later come to view the incident as “unwanted.”

A good example of this problem is the 2015 Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct, conducted by the Association of American Universities (AAU). The survey’s main conclusion was that 23.1% of female undergraduates experience sexual assault or sexual misconduct. But the survey methodology has serious problems:

  • Response rate of only 19%, which means the respondents were not representative of the overall student population
  • Failure to adequately define “incapacitation” or to distinguish it from “intoxication.” (Intoxication, also called drunkenness, is similar to a state’s drunk driving limit. Incapacity is a higher level of alcohol consumption in which the person cannot appreciate the nature of the situation.)
  • Nearly 60% of students who said they were victims of “sexual assault” said they did not report the incident because they did not consider it serious enough
  • A nine-fold discrepancy between the number of incidents that students claimed they reported to university officials, compared to the number reported to the federal government under the Clery Act

AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT 

The survey defined “sexual misconduct” as:

  1. Physical force or threat of physical force
  2. Being incapacitated because of drugs, alcohol or being unconscious, asleep or passed out
  3. Coercive threats of non-physical harm or promised rewards, or
  4. Failure to obtain affirmative consent, which the survey defined as “active, ongoing voluntary agreement”

But affirmative consent is a controversial, possibly unconstitutional concept. And many universities with such policies implemented them in the Summer or Fall of 2015, after the AAU survey was fielded. An internet search of the terms “affirmative consent,” “student handbook,” and name of each university reveals that at the time the AAU survey was conducted in Spring 2015:

  • No affirmative consent policy was in place when survey was conducted: 15 colleges
  • Affirmative consent policy is currently in place, but date of implementation unknown: 9 colleges
  • Affirmative consent policy was known to be in place when AAU survey was conducted: 3 colleges

The AAU report makes the claim that 11.4% of undergraduate females were “victimized” by the absence of affirmative consent (page xii). But for at least 15 out of the 27 colleges — and possibly as many as 24 out of 27 colleges — no affirmative consent policy was in place. Therefore, absence of affirmative consent cannot be considered to represent sexual misconduct at these institutions, and the 23.1% female victimization figure is over-stated.

See SAVE press release HERE. A listing of the 27 colleges, categorized by the status of their affirmative consent policies, is shown below:

College Comments Link
NO AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT POLICY IN PLACE WHEN SURVEY WAS CONDUCTED
1 Brown University http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/institutional-diversity/sexual-assault-policy-resources-and-prevention-summer-2014-updates
2 Case Western Reserve University http://www.case.edu/diversity/sexualconduct/policies/assault.html
3 Cornell University Affirmative consent policy was not implemented until September 2015  http://www.dfa.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/policy/vol6_4_0.pdf
4 Dartmouth College http://student-affairs.dartmouth.edu/resources/student-handbook/smisconduct.html
5 Harvard University http://odr.harvard.edu/faq/why-didn’t-university-adopt-affirmative-consent-standard; https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/17/colleges-across-country-adopting-affirmative-consent-sexual-assault-policies
6 Michigan State University http://www.hr.msu.edu/documents/uwidepolproc/RVSMPolicy.pdf
7 Ohio State University http://studentconduct.osu.edu/page.asp?id=39
8 Texas A&M University http://studentlife.tamu.edu/sas.svp.definitions
9 University of Arizona http://www.titleix.arizona.edu/definitions
10 University of Michigan https://studentsexualmisconductpolicy.umich.edu/files/smp/UM%20Policy%20on%20Sexual%20Misconduct%20by%20Students.pdf
11 University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Affirmative consent policy was implemented after AAU survey was conducted  https://policy.umn.edu/operations/sexualassault-appa
12 University of Missouri-Columbia https://www.umsystem.edu/ums/rules/collected_rules/equal_employment_educational_opportunity/ch600/600.020_sex_discrimination_sexual_harassment_and_sexual_misconduct
13 University of Pennsylvania http://www.upenn.edu/affirm-action/introsh.html
14 University of Texas at Austin http://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/appendices/appendix-d/
15 Washington University, St. Louis https://shs.wustl.edu/SexualViolence/Pages/What-is-sexual-violence.aspx
CURRENTLY HAVE AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT POLICY, BUT DATE OF POLICY IMPLEMENTATION UNKNOWN
University policy explicitly refers to “affirmative consent:”
16 Columbia University http://sexualrespect.columbia.edu/definitions-gender-based-misconduct
17 Iowa State University https://dos.uiowa.edu/assistance/consent/
18 University of Virginia http://www.virginia.edu/sexualviolence/sexualassault/
University policy does not explicitly refer to affirmative consent, but is implicit in definition of sexual consent:
19 Purdue University Policy requires “affirmative communication” http://www.purdue.edu/policies/ethics/iiic1.html#statement
20 University of Florida “Affirmative consent” not found, but generally consistent with the AAU definition http://regulations.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/4041.pdf
21 University of Oregon Policy requires “explicit consent” http://aaeo.uoregon.edu/sexual-harassment-violence/gender-discrimination/sexual-violence
22 University of Pittsburgh “Affirmative consent” not found, but generally consistent with the AAU definition http://www.share.pitt.edu/about/definitions-and-consent
23 University of Wisconsin-Madison Policy requires a clear ‘yes,’ not just the absence of ‘no’ http://www.uhs.wisc.edu/assault/assault.shtml
24 Yale University Policy requires a clear ‘yes,’ not just the absence of ‘no’ http://smr.yale.edu/sexual-misconduct-policies-and-definitions
AFFIRMATIVE CONSENT POLICY IMPLEMENTED BEFORE AAU SURVEY CONDUCTED
25 California Institute of Technology Law in California https://hr.caltech.edu/documents/48-citpolicy_sexual_violence.pdf
26 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Policy was implemented in October 2014 http://safe.unc.edu/learn-more/consent/; http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/education/article10091438.html
27 University of Southern California Law in California https://sarc.usc.edu/what-is-consent

 

EDITORIALS

The AAU survey attracted editorial criticism: