UT System to conduct comprehensive study on sexual assault

The University of Texas at Arlington is one of 13 campuses in the UT system that will take part in a $1.7 million study on sexual assault, dating violence, stalking and sexual harassment this fall.

University of Texas System Chancellor William McRaven asked for an in-depth study of the subject after he took office in January, said Wanda Mercer, the UT System’s associate vice chancellor for student affairs.

The UT system’s multiyear study is intended to learn about students’ experiences with intimate and interpersonal violence so that the campuses can institute new policies and procedures to better help students emotionally and economically.

“This study is a proactive approach to an important issue,” Mercer said. “We are not waiting for a high-profile incident to occur before we do it.”

Students, faculty, staff and campus law enforcement will participate.

“We know there are significant barriers in society as a whole for individuals reporting sexual assaults — it’s certainly the most under-reported crime,” said Heather Snow, UT Arlington assistant vice president of student affairs.

College students, who study, live and oftentimes work on or around campus, may have an even harder time than others reporting sexual assaults because it shakes their world.

College-based sexual assaults are primarily perpetrated by people the victims know — exes, friends, acquaintances, she said.

“The biggest concern expressed by survivors is they won’t be believed, and certainly, yes, they don’t want to face retaliation,” Snow said.

A sample of the UT system’s 217,000 students on 13 campuses will be selected to participate in online questionnaires. Researchers with UT Austin’s School of Social Work are conducting the study, and will use the results to develop new programs, policies and procedures.

Called “Cultivating Learning and Safe Environments,” the study will gather data from self-identified victims.

UT Arlington, UT Austin, UT El Paso and the UT Medical Branch at Galveston were selected for in-depth focus groups, surveys of faculty, staff, law enforcement, administration and student leadership. The studies aim to learn how crimes are reported and how the universities respond.

“We wanted to start with four diverse campuses. There was no single incident that prompted the research at all,” said Bruce Kellison, associate director of the Bureau for Business Research at UT Austin.

Researchers also will look at the economic cost of violence.

A 2011 study found sexual assaults cost Texas $8 billion a year, according to Kellison and study leader Noël Busch-Armendariz, who is director of UT Austin’s Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

Kellison said the researchers want to see how these crimes affect dropout rates, graduation postponement, and personal and family budgets because of time taken off work.

“The number of sexual assaults reported to college law enforcement is generally the tip of the iceberg,” Busch-Armendariz said in a prepared statement.

Her recent studies on sexual assaults in the state found:

▪ 6.3 million adults have been victims

▪ Adults aged 18-24 had victimization rates as high as 48.3% of women and 12.3% in men

▪ 413,000 were assaulted in 2014, but only 9 percent reported it to law enforcement

A few hundred incoming freshman at UT Austin will participate in a four-year study so the researches can identify the psychological and economic impact of sexual violence, Kellison said.

Systemwide findings will be made public to benefit other universities.

“We are going to be asking them about their experiences around sexual harassment, stalking, interpersonal and domestic violence — did they report it, and if not why?” Kellison said.

This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 8:38 PM with the headline "UT System to conduct comprehensive study on sexual assault."