In spite of a nationwide increase, incidents of non-consensual sexual contact at the University of Oregon have decreased since 2015, according to a national campus climate survey released Tuesday by the Association of American Universities. 

The survey also found that certain populations, like gender non-conforming individuals and grad students, still face disproportionate rates of incidence. Female graduate students, for example, reported higher rates of harassment from faculty or instructors compared with female undergraduate students.

About 20.8% of undergraduate women at UO reported non-consensual sexual contact since entering the university in the 2019 survey, compared to 24.2% in the 2015 survey. That’s in spite of a national trend in the other direction: according to the national data, 26.4% of undergraduate women have experienced the same thing, compared with 23.4% in the previous survey.

The survey is conducted every few years by a collection of research universities in North America. The last survey was conducted in 2015, and this year, 33 universities participated in the study. More students participated in this survey compared with the last one — UO had a response rate of 17.4% this year compared with 13.9% in 2015. 

The survey cost the university about $85,000 — this included incentives for participating students, UO-specific survey questions and donations made to the Victims Assistance Fund.

UO Title IX coordinator Darci Heroy said that she’s “really excited to see some positive changes” in areas such as increases in survey respondents’ perception of whether school officials will take reports seriously and conduct a fair investigation.

“Given some of the climate that we’ve seen around these issues in the last several years on campus, it was really heartening to see some changes there reflecting the work that we’ve all done — administrators, faculty and students — to really engage on these in a more productive way over the last few years,” Heroy said. 

Related: ‘Room to improve’: UO surveys students about sexual assault

According to this year’s survey, 65.1% of respondents “perceived that it is very or extremely likely that campus officials would take a report seriously,” compared with 53.0% who answered the same question in 2015. 

When asked if campus officials would conduct a fair investigation, 50% of those surveyed in 2019 “indicated that it was extremely likely that the investigation would be fair,” compared with 37.4% of respondents who answered similarly in 2015. Among undergraduate women surveyed in 2019, 44.6% of those surveyed said that the UO would conduct an investigation fairly — up from 35.3% in 2015. 

Respondents also reported that sexual assault and misconduct was less problematic at UO than in 2015 and knew more about resources available on campus. 

“For undergraduate women,” the report said, “there is a statistically significant change in the percentage of students who reported [sexual assault or misconduct] was very or extremely problematic…. In 2015, 44.2 percent had this perception compared with 30.8 percent in 2019.”

Universities across the country, including UO, saw increases in the number of surveyed respondents who knew about where to receive help on campus. There was an increase in surveyed respondents who knew how UO defines sexual assault and misconduct. 

Heroy said that there has been a push to educate students on such topics over the last few years and that a dialogue in 2017 around reporting sexual misconduct led to greater awareness of resources.

“Our prevention education efforts have been phenomenal over the last several years that to the extent we’re getting to almost all of the incoming freshmen, the transfer students [and] the international students as soon as they get here. We’ve seen a real development of more common language around these things, understanding of resources, understanding of all of these,” she said. 

Related: 2017: UO creates new “Responsible Reporting” policy

Some students still at greater risk

The data also showed differences for graduate students in the identity of their harasser. For graduate women, about 22% said they were harassed by faculty or instructors, while only about 3% of undergraduate women said the same. 

Heroy said that graduate students are a “very vulnerable population,” which is reflected in the national and local data, and she said she thinks that part of the reason is because they interact closely with faculty or in small units.  

“In those situations, we see some pretty high barriers to reporting because of fears of retaliation and how this could impact their career,” she said. 

Heroy said that improvements are made through outreach efforts and working with the Dean of Students’ Office to “figure out how to target our prevention education efforts.”

“We’ve been doing a lot of outreach to graduate students in particular — having trainings sometimes at the departmental level, going around campus and really interacting personally with folks.”  

Related: Title IX Coordinator to resign

At UO, the frequency of non-consensual sexual contact remained about the same as three years ago for other demographics. About 15% of transgender, non-binary, queer, gender questioning or “gender not listed” individuals (who the survey grouped together for statisical purposes and identified as “TGQN”) reported experiencing this kind of contact, along with about 10% of graduate school women and 6% of undergraduate men. 
Of TGQN survey respondents, 12.8% said that they felt “very or extremely connected to the campus community,” compared with 29.5% of women undergraduate and 10.6% of women graduate students. 

The survey compares responses of TGQN students with female students “because their rates are closest with respect to victimization and climate measures to TGQN students.” 

Heroy said the dean of students has been working to do outreach and engagement with marginalized communities, but her staff has also been making internal changes in an effort to “invite more engagement.” Heroy said efforts include changing dialogue with regards to template communications and websites to make it more inclusive for those seeking resources or support. 

Heroy said that groups on campus including the Office of Assessment and Research, the Sexual Violence and Prevention and Education team and the dean of students will go through the survey data, as well as Clery report data, and come back with recommendations. 

“They’re going to be tasked with going through all the data with a fine tooth comb and coming back with some recommendations for what we can do moving forward. I’m excited to see what recommendations they come up with,” she said.