Hunter
10/01/21
The University of Iowa released results of their annual Speak Out Iowa survey on campus sexual misconduct Thursday, while unveiling a new Anti-Violence Plan.
The Daily Iowan reports that the survey was offered to all degree-seeking students at the UI and got a response rate of over 15 ½ percent.
Over a quarter of women, 8.4 percent of men, and nearly 29 percent of transgender or gender non-conforming students say they’d experienced some type of sexual violence since enrolling at the University. About 12 percent of the female respondents, nearly 18 percent of trans or non-conforming, and 4 percent of males reported that they’ve been raped since enrolling.
One of the subjects in the survey was consent. 61 percent of women and 44 percent of the men responding said they typically communicate sexual consent using non-verbal signals and body language, which administrators of the survey say is not the best way to ask for consent. Howver, 47 percent of the men and 40 percent of the woman said they always ask verbally for consent.
Over 57 percent of women and over 67 percent of men believed that the University of Iowa would handle a report of sexual misconduct fairly. Not as high among transgender and gender non-conforming students, of which only 46.3 percent believed their report would be treated fairly.
The DI reports that the Anti-Violence Plan outlines nearly 40 recommendations in prevention, education, intervention, and policy changes that the campus Anti-Violence Coalition developed in response to the survey. Some of them include increasing tools to educate students on healthy relationships and sexuality and make them easy to access; create a video on digital harassment; create a tiered education program for fraternity and sorority members; and create a men’s peer program for fraternity members.
The full report is available at www.speakout.uiowa.edu.