Beyond Sexual Assault Surveys: A Model for Comprehensive Campus Climate Assessments

Campus Sexual Assault: Future Directions for Research

“…In recent years, there has been a proliferation of campus climate surveys, which are endorsed by the Task Force to assess prevalence of CSA and other forms of interpersonal violence on campus and typically measure types of violence in a behaviorally based way, along with an assessment of the safety of campus climate, student attitudes, and perception of institutional services (Wood, Sulley, Kerwick, Follingstad & Busch-Armendariz, 2016; McMahon, Stepleton, Cusano, O’Connor, Gandhi & McGinty, 2017; Cantalupo, 2014; White House Task Force, 2014a). These surveys have taken place at numerous institutions across the country, further bolstering knowledge of prevalence rates.…”

“…Climate studies have solidified prevalence findings for CSA victimization in traditional IHE settings, but more work is needed to improve the survey process. Although many survey tools exist, further validation studies are needed to modify them to diverse cultural groups, and qualitative research is needed to bolster the prevalence findings and the experience of vulnerable groups who may not be adequately represented in quantitative analyses (McMahon et al, 2017).…”

“…From a socioecological perspective, campus climate surveys represent an important step in moving beyond assessment of just individual experiences and behaviors and attempt to gather more information about the community and institutional factors. However, these surveys rely on self-reported individual perceptions; therefore, additional work and methodologies would be beneficial for capturing a more comprehensive, multilevel picture of the climate on college campuses, including the measurement of perpetration (Driver-Linn & Svensen, 2017; Krebs et al, 2016; McMahon et al, 2017; Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), 2017).…”

Climate Surveys: An Inventory of Understanding Sexual Assault and Other Crimes of Interpersonal Violence at Institutions of Higher Education

“…Table 2 outlines the implication, availability, cost, number of questions, and time allotted to each survey. iSpeak and University of Oregon (UO) surveys were created by a single institution; in other words, a set of researchers at each of these universities created the survey (McMahon, Stepleton, & Cusano, 2014; University of Oregon, 2015). Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) consulted with representatives from their campus communities during the development and planning of surveys (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014; B. Sabri, Johns Hopkins University, personal communication, February 16, 2015).…”

The Center on Violence Against Women and Children at Rutgers University

“…Finally, 21 focus groups with 179 students were held with the general student population and subsets of the student body, including athletes, sexual violence survivors, students from the Center for Social Justice Education and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered communities, members of Greek life, and representatives from cultural centers. Key findings from this project include: (1) Campus climate surveys provide more meaning when they are part of a larger assessment process, (2) the administration of campus climate surveys has the most impact when it is linked with the development of an action plan, (3) one size does not fit all, (4) it is important to find ways to represent all student voices, and (5) a campus climate survey can be an educational tool in and of itself (McMahon et al, 2018).…”