Survey: 10 Percent Of MSU, U-M Students Say They're Victims Of Sexual Assault
ANN ARBOR (WWJ/AP) - More than 10 percent of students responding to a survey at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan say they have experienced unwanted sexual contact through force or incapacitation.
The results were released Monday as part of a national survey of students at more than two dozen universities last spring.
One in four women at all schools surveyed reported they had been victims of unwanted sexual contact of some kind.
At Michigan State, 13.2 percent of 8,350 students said they experienced sexual contact without consent that involved force or possibly alcohol or drugs. At Michigan, it was 14.6 percent of 6,700 students who responded to the survey.
David Cantor, one of the principal investigators involved in the survey, says this information could be very useful to the colleges themselves.
"Certainly they are going to be concerned about trying to reduce the amount of sexual assault and sexual misconduct that's occurring. They're going to look at reasons why people aren't reporting things to their offices or to law enforcement," he said.
Among undergraduate women, 30.3 percent report nonconsensual penetration or sexual touching (or attempts) by force or incapacitation since entering U-M. Slightly more than 22 percent of all undergraduate females reported unwanted penetration or sexual touching during the past school year (compared to 22.5 percent over 12 months in the previous U-M survey).
The AAU survey also asked about sexual harassment, finding that 54.7 percent of U-M students indicated they had experienced sexual harassment since entering college. Female undergraduates reported the highest rate of sexual harassment at 73.2 percent.
"Sexual misconduct must be addressed on our college campuses and throughout society," said U-M President Mark Schlissel. "This research is vitally important to our understanding of this problem so we can design education and prevention efforts in the most effective manner possible."
Holly Rider-Milkovich, director of sexual assault prevention at the U-M, said the survey results are critical to her work.
"With regard to some areas of non-consensual sexual behavior, our numbers are higher than the aggregate data, while in other areas we are consistent with it," Rider-Milkovich said. "But in all cases, the numbers are too high and we are committed to continuing to address the issue of sexual misconduct.
"But in all cases, the numbers are too high and we are committed to continuing to address the issue of sexual misconduct,
she said. "The more we know about our community, the better we are able to tailor our programs to be most effective."
In a statement, MSU President Lou Anna Simon called sexual assault at colleges a "serious national issue."
"I take no comfort that our preliminary analysis of this data suggests the experiences of some of our students are statistically similar to those at other AAU institutions," Simon said.
"No member of our community should be threatened by sexual violence. We will continue to use a variety of sources of information to guide policy and program improvements. Yet, we must rely on every Spartan to be an active participant in building a culture of respect and caring and to join with other Spartans to prevent sexual assault and relationship violence on our campus."
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