In the beginning of the 2014 academic year at Indiana University, a survey was released to gather information about sexual assault, abuse, and harassment on campus. The goal of this survey was to gather information from men and women who are both undergraduates and graduates so that IU can make improvements in their safety procedures. Indiana administrators are doing a great thing by showing a clear concern for the students at IU, but at the same time, many of the problems are caused by the lack of action that IU has taken until now.
According to the report, about 23 percent of the student population started the survey (9,648), but information was only taken from the approximately 17 percent (7,132) of students who completed 50 percent or more of the survey. This was a huge success in numbers, and IU was able to get a solid picture of the problem due to the compliance of the students who responded.
About 17 percent of students who responded said that they had been sexually assaulted since they had attended Indiana University, and IU noted that the national average is 20 percent, so students at IU have experienced sexual assault less than those at other campuses. IU also noted that the rates of sexual assault at IU were about the same as the rates of sexual assaults for students in high school in Indiana.
While these statistics, among other statistics, made IU look good, it appears IU specifically chose statistics in their favor to be the “Key Findings” in their survey on the first two pages. Being a skeptical person, I decided to dive deeper and read the entire report myself, and I came across other statistics that are not favorable to IU but were left out of their report summary.
For one, the report says that “for the undergraduate women participants, more assaults occurred during their first year of school,” which sparked my attention. While IU tried to make themselves look favorable by pointing out the equal percentages of assaults occurring from high school to college, they failed to realize that they are saying that it's in one year at IU that the majority of assaults occur; the percentage is at the same rate as the previous 18-25 years they had lived before they attended IU.
Another flaw that I saw in their report was in the number of assaults “reported” and how students felt they were supported by the University. While the most common response, according to they survey, was that students felt supported, the second most common was the opposite feedback. Noting that a session with a Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) counselor and a Sexual Assault Crisis Services (SACS) counselor at the IU Health Center counts as a report, they’re naturally receiving some level of support, but I wanted to take a look at actual police reports filed by students.
After doing the math, of the 7,132 people who responded to the survey, 17 percent of undergraduate women (1,212 women), 6 percent of graduate women (428 women), 2 percent of undergraduate men (142 men), and 1 percent of graduate men (71 men), were sexually assaulted since coming to IU. Out of those numbers, the report says that 28.6 percent of undergraduate women reported it to the police and 14.3 percent of graduate women reported their assault (no men reported their assaults). That means that of the 1,212 undergraduate women, 346 reported to the police, and 61 graduate women reported to the police as well. Keep in mind that this is only counting women who responded to the survey, let alone other women who may have made reports to the police as well.
These numbers seemed large to me, considering I don’t hear about many convicted assailants on campus, so I took a deeper look at the recently released IUPD Annual Survey Report. After scrolling through 40 pages of fluff and information about “action” that IU has been taking, I finally found the hidden reports of sexual assault sandwiched between many other possible crimes happening at IU.
The report is only for IUPD related cases, but the Bloomington department does not have any numbers released, and it is unclear whether or not these numbers are reports or convictions. Either way, the numbers are shockingly lower than the numbers noted in the survey. The number of sexual assaults was 36 in the IUPD Annual Survey in 2013. Regardless of whether or not these numbers are reports or convictions, 407 women claimed they reported assaults to the police in the Climate Survey, and the numbers on this police report are maddeningly lower than what students are actually reporting. Is the IUPD lying? What numbers are they actually reporting? And if these are convictions being reported, why are so few assailants held accountable for their actions when over 400 women have come forward with assaults?
The Climate Survey asked two consecutive questions showing evidence that while students may be feeling “supported,” they are not being helped in every way they needed. The Survey asks, “Did Indiana University staff help you address the problem?” and 34.7 percent said they helped a lot. A large percentage also felt they helped somewhere in between, and only 11.4 percent said they didn’t help at all. The IU “staff” would mean counselors, staff members, ect. and while the students felt like someone was there for them throughout the process post-assault, the next question was the most telling.
The next question asks, “Did the Indiana University formal procedures help you address this problem?” and a huge change in numbers happened. 54.5 percent of the students who responded said that they were not helped at all or only helped a little. The “formal procedures” suggest formal reporting and action taken against assailants, which goes through the police and school administrators. After seeing that variance in response, it was evident to me that while students have someone to talk to if they are assaulted, their assailants are still out there, and only minimal efforts are being made to hold them accountable.
The “action” IU is taking against sexual violence fills about 20 full pages in the 54 page police report, and if sexual assault wasn’t a problem on our campus, I don’t think the IU police would have almost half of their report be about sexual assault prevention. If so many measures are being taken to prevent sexual assault on campus, it must means it’s a prevalent enough issue, and from the survey, we know that to be true. So why have they failed to convict assailants after excessively trying to “prove” that IU is taking action against sexual assault?
These are only a few examples that just touch the surface of the problems in this report. Hopefully, after seeing these numbers, IU realizes the velocity of this problem and takes greater action against sexual assailants as they claim that they are. If they do, that will be a huge step for Indiana, but I would like to see a report that asks about specifics, particularly concerning how women feel about the support they received or didn’t receive from the IUPD. If cases of convictions went up, sexual assailants would be deterred from committing actions they knew could actually get them in trouble. If real action is taken, I am hopeful that the IU community can begin to lower the number of cases of sexual assault on our campus.
