News
Hamilton included in national sexual assault campus survey
By Emily Eisler ’17
February 4, 2016
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Last month, the Higher Education Data Sharing (HEDS) consortium published the results of a national sexual assault campus climate survey. Hamilton is one of the fifty-four small private colleges that participated in the survey, with over 25 percent of Hamilton students contributing to the findings. Hamilton’s results were similar to those of similar institutions, but some of the findings still concern the administration.
Most Hamilton respondents agree or strongly agree that the faculty, staff and administration care about the opinions and welfare of Hamilton students. A large percentage of students also reported feeling safe on campus. Hamilton students have a strong belief that campus officials do a good job protecting students from harm and that said officials would handle any crisis that occurs, as well as the belief that officials handle incidents in a fair and responsible manner.
Hamilton respondents overwhelmingly agreed that campus officials would take a reported sexual assault seriously and conduct a thorough investigation, ultimately taking action against the offender. Overall, students at Hamilton were significantly more likely than students at other private small institutions to say that they felt there is a good support system at the College for students going through hard times.
A significantly higher than average percentage of student respondents said they do not believe that the average number of sexual assaults that occur at Hamilton is low. A large number of Hamilton students also responded that they think people are at risk of being sexually assaulted on campus.
Over 90 percent of Hamilton students reported receiving education about issues of sexual assault from the College. However, only 68.3 percent of Hamilton students report receiving education on the procedures for investigating sexual assault, and only about 80 percent knew actions to take to prevent sexual assault, such as partner communication or bystander intervention.
The second portion of the survey asked students what, if any, kind of unwanted sexual contact they had experienced on campus or at Hamilton events. Hamilton students reported a slightly lower than average incidence of unwanted verbal and nonverbal behaviors toward them.
Only 41 percent of Hamilton respondents said they had never experienced unwanted verbal harassment, while 52.5 percent rarely or sometimes are victims of these behaviors, which include sexual comments made to someone about their body and unwelcome sexual propositions. 79.2 percent of respondents have never experienced nonverbal harassment behaviors such as being sent unwanted sexual messages or social media posts, while 15.5 percent say this rarely happens to them. Only 54 percent of respondents say they have never experienced unwanted physical contact on campus such as groping, pinching or other unwanted sexual touching.
The survey also asked participants if anybody had unsuccessfully attempted to sexually assault them on campus, to which 7.3 percent of respondents said yes, and 6.3 percent said they suspect someone may have, but they are not certain. Both of these numbers are similar to the small private institution average. 8.5 percent of respondents stated they were victims of completed sexual assault, and 4.4 percent suspected they were victims but were not sure.
Both of these numbers are slightly higher than the average for the small private college survey. 92 percent of sexual assaults on campus here involved the offender drinking alcohol; in fact, the percentage of assaults in which either the victim or the abuser consumed alcohol is 10-15 percent higher than that of the average small private institution. In 55 percent of these assaults, the victim was unable to provide consent or stop the assault because they were incapacitated in ways such as sleep or drugs and alcohol.
A fellow student committed 98 percent of these assaults. 75 percent of victims counted their attacker as a non-romantic friend or acquaintance. 81.5 percent of victims did not use Hamilton’s procedures for making a formal report about sexual assault. While that number may seem large, it is actually quite similar to the population average.
These numbers show that while Hamilton students seem to think that any incidents that happen here are dealt with well, there is still a significant chance of sexual assault occurring. The Hamilton College administration plans to use the information from this survey in order to improve their educational efforts and preventive measures against sexual harassment and assault. A series of discussions will be held for the Hamilton Community this month on the subject of these results and Hamilton’s current methods of dealing with sexual assault hosted by Interim Senior Associate Dean of Students and Title IX Coordinator Lisa Magnarelli.