(Newswire.net — October 2, 2014) — The web-based survey that included 982 students, conducted after the school faced criticism over its handling of an alleged rape involving three basketball players that lead to the resignation of former university president Michael Gottfredson.
The survey shows that 35 percent of students, among are 14 percent of men, had at least one forcible sexual encounter. About 90 percent of students assaulted never reported the violence.
“We think it’s terrible,” said interim president and provost of the school Scott Coltrane.
“The findings reflect the incidence rates that we’re hearing from across the country, so that is not a surprise, but there are pieces there that are alarming,” said Coltrane referring to the low number of students who report the crimes.
With one in five students falling victim to sex assault during their college years, the White House has declared sex crimes to be “epidemic” on US college campuses.
Coltrane said both outside experts and faculty were evaluating the school’s sexual assault policies and prevention programs.
Earlier, Coltrane extended the school’s code of conduct to encompass off-campus behavior in a bid to reduce assaults and punish offenders.
Though University of Oregon was not on the list of 55 colleges under investigation to determine whether their handling of sex assaults and harassment violated federal laws, Jennifer Freyd, a psychology professor who led the study, and other school officials are part of a White House effort to develop a nationwide survey that can be conducted on campuses nationwide, she said.
“If you’ve got a survey that lets you make meaningful comparisons between colleges, then colleges will have a meaningful incentive to reduce the violence that’s being measured,” Freyd said.
Because, for example, her respondents were younger, whiter, and more female than the general school population, Freyd said she was hesitant to draw broader conclusions about the campus.