Almost one in five women at UF has been sexually assaulted, according to a campus assault survey released Monday.
The survey was administered to UF students last April, after the attempted assaults in Fall 2014.
It is a statistic that is slightly lower than the national average — and one that is not a surprise.
The survey lines up with what other surveys have found, said Chris Loschiavo, a UF associate dean of students and director of Conduct and Conflict Resolution.
The data was part of the Association of American Universities’ inaugural Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct. The survey was given to more than 150,000 students at 27 universities to ask students about sexual assault and sexual misconduct on campus.
While UF’s numbers were lower than the national average — including UF undergraduate females experiencing less sexual assault with physical force (20%) than the national average (23%) — Loschiavo said the results were still concerning.
He said for UF, "One is too many."
"I think part of it is just helping students understand how we define the behavior," he said.
Loschiavo said he thinks increasing student awareness of what constitutes sexual assault will be part of UF’s plan moving forward. UF participated in the survey to identify gaps in their services.
"This gives us a better benchmark," he said.
The survey asked respondents if they identified as transgender, genderqueer, non-conforming or questioning, said Sandra Martin, a member of the AAU survey development team.
"We’ll be able to provide context for the issues students experienced," she said.
The survey could have a non-response bias, with non-victims being less likely to participate, said David Cantor, vice president of Westat, the research firm that administered the survey. The survey shows slightly higher rates of non-consensual assault than other surveys.
"You have to be very careful of the fact that you’re comparing apples to apples," he said.
Erin Meisenzahl-Peace, a UF journalism senior, said sexual assault is a problem.
The 21-year-old said she’s known students who have been victims.
Programs like Walk Safe are a step in the right direction, but students should be able to walk at night without being afraid, she said.
"I think they’re a Band-Aid solution," she said.
Loschiavo said students should report sexual assault.
"If you don’t report it," he said, "we can’t do anything."
Contact Caitlin Ostroff at costroff@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @ceostroff
About 20 percent of UF female undergraduates have experienced some form of sexual assault
About 18 percent of non-heterosexual UF students have experienced sexual assault
About 92 percent of the time, the sexual harassment offender was another UF student
About 55 percent of national respondents said they thought fellow students would support the person reporting a sexual misconduct
About 63 percent of national respondents said they thought campus officials would take a report of sexual misconduct seriously
Source: Association of American Universities
