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EDITORIAL: University of Wyoming must curb sexual violence against students

Wyoming Tribune-Eagle - 7/29/2018

July 29--Even one is too many.

After all, students attend the University of Wyoming to gain knowledge, prepare for their careers, make new friends, and grow and mature as adults, not to be raped or sexually harassed.

Unfortunately, the recently released UW Sexual Misconduct Climate Survey indicates students in Laramie experience the same shockingly high level of abuse as their counterparts nationwide.

More than one in four -- 27.1 percent -- of the approximately 1,900 students who completed the survey this spring reported they had experienced at least one sexual assault during their time at UW. (Sexual assault was defined as any nonconsensual sexual touching or any attempted or completed act of nonconsensual oral, anal or vaginal sex.) About 21 percent of students said they had lived through an attempted or completed rape at least once during their time at UW, while 15 percent said they experienced a completed oral, anal or vaginal rape (excluding nonconsensual sexual touching).

In addition, roughly 58 percent of those who responded said they had experienced at least one form of sexual harassment by other students. And, unbelievably, about 35 percent said they had been sexually harassed by UW faculty or staff. (Sexual harassment was defined as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature.")

Those numbers probably come as a surprise to many people -- especially those who send their children to the state's only public four-year university. That's because they are much higher than crime reports indicate. Unfortunately, many victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment choose not to report these situations to law enforcement or other campus authorities. And many of these crimes take place off-campus, so they don't end up in campus police reports or other federally required data.

But there's at least one person not surprised by the numbers: UW President Laurie Nichols. While acknowledging the survey results are "completely unacceptable," she said they confirmed a "hunch" she had that the real numbers would turn out to be comparable to other institutions of similar size.

"When you're talking about sexual assault or rape, I think any numbers are too high," Ms. Nichols told the Laramie Boomerang. "I hate to see us at 27.1 percent ... but on the flip side, it's probably, to some extent, about where I thought we might be. I mean, we're right on average with just about every other college campus in the nation."

Well, that's comforting.

We don't mean to imply Ms. Nichols isn't serious about addressing the problem. In fact, she helped promote participation in the survey through an email to students. But the report, dated June 15, was given to the Boom-erang earlier this month by an anonymous source, and the public at large wasn't aware of it until that time. A proactive approach would have been to release the report right away, along with a detailed plan for addressing the problems it identified. And that last comment seems more like PR spin intended to make sure this report doesn't negatively impact enrollment.

Ms. Nichols went on to say that correcting the problems will require training and education, and she's right. The question now is how dedicated are she and other UW leaders to seriously addressing these issues?

The report provides some recommendations, including:

Intensified prevention programming -- While continuing to educate students and staff about sexual misconduct and consent, UW needs to provide more training to increase bystander intervention. Then, when students have consumed too much alcohol -- as often happens in the lead-up to many sexual assaults -- someone will be more likely to intervene.

Education about how to report these situations -- UW officials say they recently improved the visibility of reporting options. But survey results indicated less than half of students knew where to go to report sexual misconduct.

Greater post-assault support -- More resources need to be provided -- and advertised -- to effectively treat the post-traumatic emotional and psychological impacts of sexual assault. Survey results showed only slightly more than half of respondents knew where to go to get help on campus after an incident of sexual misconduct.

Improve timeliness of investigation and response -- Many of the comments found at the end of the 46-page report deal with unsatisfactory responses to sexual misconduct reports, including "UW staff are all talk and no action" and "the girl is always blamed and nothing ever happens." To get more students to report these situations, campus authorities must prove that they take them seriously and address them quickly.

We know these cases aren't easy because they often come down to one person's word against another's. But if nothing is done and no one communicates with the victim after the initial report is filed, word spreads quickly that it's not worth saying anything at all.

Critics might look at this study and argue that only those who have been personally affected by sexual assault or harassment bothered to complete the survey. That may be true. But as the report states, "Even if one were to assume that the sexual assault victimization rate was zero among survey non-respondents, we nevertheless had 286 individuals in our sample reporting a completed rape during their time at UW."

And even one is too many.

WE WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK: Contact us via email at opinion@wyomingnews.com.

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