Campus climate survey sees increase in sexual assault reporting


(Desiree Khoo | Daily Trojan)

The prevalence of sexual assault among USC students increased slightly and rates of reporting incidents went up significantly between 2015 and 2019, according to results from a campus climate survey conducted at USC and dozens of other universities. 

The Association of American Universities Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct, which was open from April to May, surveyed 8,380 students. The weighted data attempts to reflect the entire student population.

The survey was first released to USC students in 2015 after various universities in AAU created it to look at data on sexual assault and misconduct across campuses. The 2015 survey was the largest study of these issues among college students.

“One of the things that many of us in the field realized was that we really didn’t have good information on how often it was happening, what did students know about it, [if they] were accessing resources and what [we] could use to better design our prevention and response protocols,” said Sarah Van Orman, chief health officer at USC Student Health.

Van Orman said the survey helped the University understand how common issues of sexual assault and reporting of such incidents are across college campuses. The 2019 survey, which was launched at 33 universities across the United States, compared data from the 2015 survey. 

According to the report, the prevalence of sexual assault among USC students increased from 19.3% to 20.5% for undergraduates and from 2.8% to 4.1% for graduate students. The report also found that the rate of reporting incidents from students who experienced sexual assault increased significantly from 13.9% to 31.5% for undergraduates and from 10% to 28.5% for graduate students.

The survey results come nearly two weeks after the Department of Public Safety released its annual security and fire safety report two weeks ago, which showed increased reports of rape and fondling on campus. According to the report, DPS reported 118 sex offenses on campus and in the surrounding community, marking an increase from 34 reports in 2017. According to the report, there were 68 reports of rape and four reports of fondling related to former campus gynecologist George Tyndall, who is accused of sexually assaulting more than 800 former patients. Unrelated to the former gynecologist, there were an additional 24 reports of rape and 21 reports of fondling.

In the wake of these revelations, Van Orman said the percent of USC undergraduate women who have experienced sexual assault since entering USC is slightly lower than that of other universities surveyed. However, at USC, the number of women who experienced assault increased by 1.2% from 2015 to 2019. Despite this slight increase, Van Orman said the survey revealed other areas where the University has improved.

“One of those areas is there’s a question about reporting … that includes reporting to an office that does investigation like Title IX or DPS, it also includes reaching out to confidential resources like RSVP or counseling and mental health,” Van Orman said. “At USC we saw doubling in rates of reporting for women, and for men we saw a tripling of rates. I view that as a really positive thing that more students who experience these are reaching out and getting assistance.”

Though rates of reporting at USC increased from 2015 to 2019, the survey indicates that more than 80% of students who experienced sexual harassment did not report the incident to USC. 

“We know that these issues are very complex, and USC, like many campuses, has made investments, particularly in the past couple of years in prevention and education,” Van Orman said. “But, if we are really going to reduce incidents of these situations, we need to make much more investments in education and prevention, and I think that prevention activities have to do with a whole culture change.”

In September, USC created the AAU Task Force, which is co-chaired by Van Orman and Vice President of Student Affairs Winston Crisp. It comprises members of the University administration, Title IX office, Graduate Student Government, Undergraduate Student Government and the Rossier School of Education.

The task force will host town halls at the University Park Campus and at the Health Sciences Campus Tuesday to discuss the results of the survey with the community. Members of the task force will answer questions from the community, listen to student concerns and introduce various resources.

“Part of what we’re charged to do over the next six months is look at this data, talk with our communities, share it across campus and then develop a report,” Van Orman said. “That report will contain recommendations that should be our roadmap for the next three to five years to figure out: What are the things that we need to do more of?”

Van Orman hopes that new initiatives introduced this past year will address some of these issues. USC Student Health launched Trojans Respect Consent at the start of the year, which requires all incoming first-year undergraduate students to participate in a 90-minute workshop on affirmative consent. According to Van Orman, the program has already seen 1,500 student participants and looks to work with thousands more.

The AAU survey results also laid out some of the policy programs and initiatives that USC has implemented in the past few years to address sexual assault, sexual misconduct and gender-based violence. 

According to the report, USC added one more therapist who specializes in sexual trauma, adopted trauma-informed principles in USC Student Health practices, trained two panels of advisors to assist Title IX offices, established a bystander training program with USG and hired a campus sexual assault prevention specialist. 

The report also said that the University hopes to create a sexual assault survivor advocates program that is dedicating to providing dedicated 24/7 on-call assistance to survivors. The initiative is anticipated to launch later this year. 

“[The survey] is just data, but it represents real students’ experiences and it lets us respond in ways that can be better effective and can guide our efforts to reduce the harm that happens to an individual student.” 

This article has been updated for clarity to accurately reflect that the number of undergraduate women experiencing sexual assault is lower than that of other AAU universities surveyed.