One in nine University of Alaska students experienced sexual misconduct, sexual assault or both in 2015, according to estimates published Monday by the University of Alaska Anchorage Justice Center.
A first for Alaska, a state known to have significantly higher rates of sexual assault than most, the research about university student experiences creates a baseline by which to evaluate the university's compliance efforts with the federal law known as Title IX, which requires universities to investigate sexual violence and sexual harassment.
Results of the University of Alaska Campus Climate Survey show that statewide, 2,870 University of Alaska students were victims of sexual assault or sexual misconduct on or off campus in 2015. Averages fluctuated only slightly between the three major campuses — Southeast, Anchorage and Fairbanks. For all campuses, among students who identified as victims of sexual violence, between 25 and 33 percent reported being victims of an attempted or completed sexual assault.
Lindsey Blumenstein, an assistant professor with the Justice Center, took on the research effort after realizing the university system had a crucial gap in its knowledge of student sexual assaults. An expert in violence against women, interpersonal violence and sexual assault, she came to Alaska in 2014 from the University of Central Florida, where sexual assault prevention and measurement efforts were more robust, she said.
"One of the first questions I had when I got here was 'What's going on on campus?' Nobody could answer it," Blumenstein said in an interview about her team's findings. "It was extremely important for us to get the whole picture."
Knowing what's happening and how often allows the university system to get a good sense for what it needs in terms of programs and services, and also provides a sound method by which to measure whether its efforts are working. Without data, program effectiveness can't be evaluated.
In January, February and March 2016, researchers asked current UA students on several campuses to take an anonymous online survey. The survey questioned participants about certain types of unwelcome sexual experiences in 2015.
"The reality is that we have to ask these tough questions if we want to make true change within our campuses and within the culture of the campus," Blumenstein said. "This is not a measure of student safety. This is just what is happening in our students' lives. If we don't ask about sexual assault or sexual victimization, we can't help."
The compiled survey results come on the heels of Title IX compliance reviews for the University of Alaska initiated in 2014 by federal investigators, and self- and external audits of UA campuses. In April, UA's Fairbanks campus acknowledged it mishandled several cases, including failing to appropriately discipline assailants.
[What led to the mishandling of sexual assault cases at UAF? Here's the report]
"The university is dedicated to supporting a more robust Title IX effort at all campuses. In the fiscal year that begins July 1, for example, the university Board of Regents voted June 3 to approve $1 million for Title IX efforts," Roberta Graham, University of Alaska associate vice president of public affairs and federal relations, said via email.
Under Title IX, universities must implement sexual violence prevention efforts and take steps to get victims' lives and educations back on track.
"Your school must protect you," the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights emphasizes in a fact sheet on students' rights and university obligations under Title IX.
"President (Jim) Johnsen is committed to more training for staff and students, more support for reporting systems and response, and more outreach and education focused on ending sexual assault at the university," Graham said.
Blumenstein said it was important to collect information about what was happening on and off campus, since student wellness is about the whole student. Student health and safety need to be priorities in and out of class, on and off campus, she said.
Sexual assault and misconduct estimates for the University of Alaska system are "solidly within the range" of prior estimates for schools outside Alaska, Blumenstein said. A nine-school survey published in January by the Department of Justice found that on average, 10.3 percent of college women were victims of a completed sexual assault.
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Still, Blumenstein cautions against comparing results, as studies vary greatly. Some may look only at freshman instead of undergraduate and graduate students. They may measure different time periods, ask different questions, or limit incidents to on-campus events.
Among the changes already in the works at UAF is the opening of an on-campus advocacy center staffed by the Interior Alaska Center for Non-Violent Living, a nonprofit victim service agency that serves the statewide community outside of Anchorage.
The center's director, Brenda Stanfill, said that in her experience the numbers from the Justice Department's new survey seem low. Victim-blaming and the heightened risks of victimization associated with alcohol consumption can make knowing when to report, and reporting itself, confusing and intimidating, she said.
"People are just now realizing that 'just because I was drunk' doesn't mean 'I deserved to be raped,' " Stanfill said.
The Justice Center survey included questions aimed at situations that some victims might have previously felt are blurred lines, like taking a sexual experience further than they wanted — even if consent was given for minor contact, like kissing and touching — or being the target of sexual comments.
Stanfill likes to use the analogy that if you were drunk or passed out, only a thief would steal your wallet, and the same holds true for sexual assault. Alcohol doesn't cause sexual assault, it creates opportunity; if you are drunk and passed out, only a rapist will take the opportunity to violate you, she said.
"People would be shocked with the true number of things that happen," said Stanfill, who views campus advocacy and prevention as one important step in what she believes ought to be a continuum of intervention, starting with breaking the cycle of childhood abuse.
Increasingly, bystander intervention programs like Green Dot are proving effective in promoting safety, and are expanding to campuses as well as communities. But universities cannot solely rely on volunteer and outside programs, since they have a federal obligation to student safety and sexual assault prevention efforts.
As the Justice Center center continues to compile its results, it expects to publish additional reports looking more specifically at the sexual victimization experiences of men, women, undergraduate and graduate students.
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