Less than a week after the release of a national survey showing more than one in three undergraduate female students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported having been sexually assaulted, students met Monday night to discuss the troubling report.
UNC-Chapel Hill was one of 33 schools to participate in the Association of American Universities Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Misconduct. More than 180,000 undergraduate and graduate students were surveyed across those public and private universities to gauge the prevalence nationwide of sexual assault, stalking and harassment on campus.
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Overall, more than 20 percent of survey respondents at UNC-Chapel Hill reported being raped or unwanted touching, and another student was the perpetrator in nearly three-quarters of the incidents. About 85 percent of the assaults occurred during the school year, and about two in five were in a campus residence hall or fraternity house.
The prevalence of sexual assault at UNC-Chapel Hill was higher than the national average, according to the AAU survey. Nationwide, only 13 percent of respondents reported being raped or unwanted touching.
"We really want student voices to be heard. We want the administration to hear what students feel about sexual assault and gender-based violence on campus and how we change the climate on campus surrounding it," said Laci Hill, co-chair of the Student Safety and Wellness Committee and one of the organizers of Monday's town hall meeting.
"Carolina has been here for a very long time, and so even just creating a seed of change in order to make a student’s life in the future more safe and that they feel welcomed on this campus, it’s the least that we can do as student government," said Brady Creef, co-chair of the Student Safety and Wellness Committee. "I believe it is our job to make sure our campus is a campus that is a home for people, and if people feel unsafe in their home or unwelcome, then we’re not doing our job."
Hill and Creef said they see sexual assault as a crucial problem affecting the UNC-Chapel Hill campus.
"I would rank it pretty high, if not the highest one, because it affects how students, it affects their mental health, it affects their academic participation and success, and that’s why we’re here at Carolina," Creef said.
"This is something that affects your entire time, not only at Carolina, but it impacts your whole life. So, it has real-life consequences," Hill said.
The meeting was designed for students to share their experiences and brainstorm solutions.
"They can express their feelings. They can ask questions. We can get together and try to come up with a solution to combat all of the issues that we’ve had on campus," Hill said.
The organizers said resources for survivors are key, but they are primarily focused on prevention.
"No one should ever have to go through the stories that I’ve heard," Hill said.
UNC-Chapel Hill administrators and police also attended the meeting, and Hill and Creef said they believe campus leadership is treating the issue seriously.
Federal investigators determined last year that the university violated Title IX regulations in its handling of sexual assault cases on campus.
The findings by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights came after a five-year investigation prompted by complaints from several women who said UNC-Chapel Hill underreported sex assaults in an annual report on campus crime and created a hostile environment for students trying to report an assault.
UNC-Chapel Hill has made changes as a result of the complaint and the OCR's findings:
- The school adopted a policy in 2014 that details prohibited conduct, including stalking and gender-based harassment, and provides resources for victims.
- Students have been removed from the grievance panels that hear sex assault cases – only trained personnel handle the cases now – and students are required to take an online sexual violence and harassment training course.
- Last year, the school agreed to review and revise Title IX policies and grievance procedures, the data collection process in sex assault cases and the training for staff members who handle these cases.
The AAU survey shows that only 17.5 percent of respondents sought help from a UNC-Chapel Hill resource, such as campus police, health services or the Gender Violence Services Coordinator. The majority of those who didn't seek help said they didn't think the incident was serious enough to report, because they either weren't hurt, felt like the situation was common on campus or because they had been drinking.
But the survey also noted that most UNC-Chapel Hill students who witnessed sexual harassment or an abusive situation that could have resulted in an assault said they took some action to intervene and help the person in trouble.