The Association of American Universities’ Campus Climate Survey that was released Monday has provided a chance for Iowa State to compare its campus climate on sexual misconduct to other universities.

Some of the 27 other institutions that volunteered to participate in the survey included the University of Texas, Texas A&M, University of Florida, University of Arizona, Ohio State, University of Minnesota, University of Oregon, Michigan State, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan and others.  

“If we’re going to compare to other schools, there’s a lot of different programs out there — there’s a lot of different student body compositions and there’s a lot of different structures and administration, so it’s very difficult to do one-on-one comparisons,” said Sarah Nusser, vice president of Research at Iowa State, who added that it’s easier to compare Iowa State to the rest of the universities as a whole.

Iowa State’s incidence of sexual assault and sexual misconduct due to physical force, threats of physical force, or incapacitation among female undergraduate student respondents was 19.3 percent, with 9 percent experiencing penetration. The average across all universities that participated was a 23.1 percent incidence rate, with 10.8 percent experiencing penetration.

Iowa State also had a higher response rate with 16.2 percent of students responding to the survey, compared to 11.7 percent among the 27 other universities.

When it comes to resources related to sexual assault and sexual misconduct, 28.1 percent of students at Iowa State who took the survey said they were very or extremely knowledgeable about where to make a report if a student or friend experienced assault or misconduct, compared to 25.8 percent of students across all 27 universities surveyed.

Of the ISU students who took the survey, 29.4 percent were very or extremely knowledgeable about how the university defines sexual misconduct and sexual assault, compared to 24 percent across all the universities that participated in the survey.

Other statistics regarding the response of reporting sexual misconduct or a sexual assault:

• 55.9 percent of ISU students surveyed believe that it is very or extremely likely that the victim would be supported by other students in making a report, compared to 55.2 percent across all participating universities
• 74.9 percent of ISU students surveyed believe it is very or extremely likely that the report would be taken seriously by campus officials, compared to 63.3 percent across all participating universities.
• 69.3 percent of ISU students surveyed said it is very or extremely likely that the individual’s safety would be protected, compared to 56.5 percent across all participating universities.
• 64.5 percent of ISU students surveyed believe it is very or extremely likely that a fair investigation would occur, compared to 49.2 percent across all participating universities.
• 59.4 percent of ISU students surveyed thought it was very or extremely likely that campus officials would take action against the offender, compared to 44.3 percent across all participating universities
• 51.6 percent of ISU students surveyed believe it is very or extremely likely that campus officials would take action to address factors that may have led to the sexual assault or sexual misconduct on campus, compared to 38.9 across all participating universities. 

Nusser said that when the report is specified for an institution, it’s hard to draw meaningful conclusions with limited data.

“There are some areas that we’d really like to look at such as race and ethnicity where we don’t have enough responses to make good comparisons there,” Nusser said. “So we have to really stick to the larger categories of people in terms of doing comparisons.”