Statistics matter. Statistics keep us informed. Statistics allow me to go swimming in the ocean knowing that I only have a roughly one in two to three million chance of getting killed by a shark. But when statistics don’t accurately paint the full picture of a problem, they can be misleading, allowing a community to not understand the full extent of a problem.
This past month, UCLA’s annual Jeanne Clery report, which provides students at federally funded universities with information about crime that has occurred on and around campus, including statistics about how many individuals reported forcible sex offenses, was released. According to the most recent UCLA report, crime statistics indicate that in 2014 there were a total of 39 forcible sex offenses that occurred on both on-campus and off-campus property.
If accepted at face value, this statistic means that a UCLA student has a roughly 39 in 43,000 chance of experiencing forcible sexual assault, numbers which represent the total undergraduate and graduate student population. This reasoning fails to take into account the fact that students often do not report their assaults to the police or the Title IX office, and therefore these assaults are not included in the Clery statistics, meaning the actual number of assaults on campus is much higher than the number indicated in the Clery report.
Additionally, there are a number of other statistics floating around that complicate matters more. In 2014, UCLA released a campus climate report that surveyed UCLA community members, and the report found that only 3 percent of survey respondents said they had experienced unwanted sexual contact in their past five years at UCLA. Another survey from this fall that looked at 27 schools across the U.S. reported that undergraduate females and undergraduate students identifying as transgender, genderqueer or non-conforming, questioning, or as an option not listed on the survey, experienced “nonconsensual sexual contact involving physical force or incapacitation since enrolling in (their) college” at rates around 23 percent to 24 percent.
When comparing all these different surveys and reports, it is almost impossible to discern which numbers are most accurate in assessing how large of a problem campus sexual assault is. Not knowing the size of a problem can prevent our UCLA community from being able to provide the best resources and services to those in need. A tangible and clear solution to this issue of contradictory and overlapping statistics would be for UCLA to conduct a new, anonymous campus climate survey to properly assess the situation of sexual assault at our university.
Luckily, a solution to all of this statistical chaos is already in the works. Conversations have begun between Heather Hourdequin, the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s internal vice president, and student group leaders including fourth-year human biology and society student Chrissy Keenan from the Bruin Consent Coalition, to move forward in developing and implementing a University of California-wide survey to understand community attitudes toward sexual assault and rape culture. Additionally, Kathleen Salvaty, UCLA’s Title IX officer, said that the Title IX office would be involved in helping implement any campus climate survey that involved sexual violence. Therefore, a partnership between the IVP office, Bruin Consent Coalition and the Title IX office to implement this survey is a very real possibility.
The survey Hourdequin is basing the possible UC-wide survey off is one from Williams College in Massachusetts, which looked at community attitudes toward sexual assault at Williams. Hourdequin hopes that a UC-wide survey can similarly look at community attitudes toward sexual assault and rape culture, meaning the Williams survey can serve as a model for UCLA to work from in the future. Furthermore, the Williams survey had a response rate of 64 percent, meaning the UC survey can look to those at Williams who implemented it to replicate this level of response-rate success.
Though the prospective UC survey is only in its beginning stages, this should not be viewed negatively. Rather, the beginning stages of the development of the project can be seen as an opportunity for various campus groups to get on board the initiative and contribute positive feedback to the survey. Conversations about what the many UCLA student populations want to learn and gain from the survey can be used to construct the language of the actual document, ensuring all students feel properly represented during the process. Sexual assault works indiscriminately, meaning all UCLA students should have a vested interest in developing this survey.
A survey of this kind can fill in the gaps where the other surveys or reports failed. In the 2014 UCLA campus climate report, only 5,382 undergraduate students, and only 2,979 graduate students responded to the survey, meaning this statistic can hardly be viewed as representative of a school with roughly 43,000 graduate and undergraduate students combined. A new survey can work to boost student response rates by having various campus coalitions working to encourage their communities to participate in the survey, increasing the likelihood that more populations are represented in the results.
Additionally, in contrast to the Clery report, the new survey can solve the issue of underreporting by allowing students to anonymously report their assaults. Without having to file an official report with the police or Title IX office, students may be more willing to speak about their experiences.
Having students speak about their experiences is vital in ensuring that our community, both on the administrative level and on the student level, best supports survivors. Without accurate statistics available educating the campus about how many individuals experience sexual assault, the topic will continue to be a confusing, unapproachable issue. Statistics can help our community find solutions to campus sexual assault and prevent it in the future.
No survey is perfect, and no survey will have a 100 percent response rate or come to concrete conclusions, but there is certainly an opportunity for UCLA to clarify some of the confusion surrounding the critical question of how big of an issue sexual assault is on our campus. We, as student group members, campus administrators, and general UCLA community members, need to push this survey initiative forward to find some order out of the chaos.
” This reasoning fails to take into account the fact that students often do not report their assaults to the police or the Title IX office, and therefore these assaults are not included in the Clery statistics, meaning the actual number of assaults on campus is much higher than the number indicated in the Clery report.”
Fail.
It also doesn’t take into account false accusations. The number could be lower.
” In the 2014 UCLA campus climate report, only 5,382 undergraduate students, and only 2,979 graduate students responded to the survey, meaning this statistic can hardly be viewed as representative of a school with roughly 43,000 graduate and undergraduate students combined.”
I suggest you take a statistics class.