College and University Staff and Administrator Perspectives on Campus Sexual Violence Reforms

Background and Purpose: Since the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter informed campuses of their obligations to respond to sexual assault on campus under Title IX legislation, campuses have undergone significant reform related to their policies, prevention programming, and response to students who experience sexual assault. Despite this active period of reform, we know very little about how this reform is being implemented on campuses and what those charged with the implementation think about the reforms.

Method: Cross-sectional data were collected from individuals involved in campus sexual assault reform using an online survey advertised on professional list-servs and sent directly to potential participants. The sample (n=235) included student affairs staff and administrators, Title IX officers, advocates and prevention staff from 24 states.  An individual attitudes scale included subscales assessing the extent that individuals report feeling that reforms have improved their campus response, feel frustrated by the process of reform, and feel as if campus sexual assault is exaggerated.  The campus priorities scale includes three subscales assessing the extent to which respondents feel their campus prioritizes increasing the victim-centered nature of campus policies and programs, ensuring fairness and due process, and managing public image.  Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and regression were used to assess the prevalence of attitudes and campus priorities, compare which attitudes and priorities were more highly rated, and to assess if individual and campus level demographics predicted attitudes or priorities.

Results:  Respondents reported significantly more positive attitudes related to campus sexual violence improvements (M=3.74), compared to attitudes of frustration (M=3.16) or exaggeration (M=2.06).  Respondents rated the importance of fairness and due process priorities (M=4.16) significantly higher than victim-centered (M=3.92) or managing public image priorities (M=3.81).  Regression results suggest that those who spend more of their work time on issues of sexual assault and those on larger campuses are less likely to see campus sexual assault as an exaggeration, while those on campuses with higher fraternity/sorority prominence and those on campuses that have faced regulatory or legal scrutiny into their handling of sexual assault were more likely to see campus sexual assault as exaggerated.  Those on private campuses were more likely to say reforms have improved campus responses.  Those on larger campuses rated the importance of victim-centered priorities significantly lower than those on smaller campuses.  Respondents who spend more of their work time on sexual assault issues rated the importance of fairness and due process more highly than those who spend less time on sexual assault issues.

Conclusions and Implications: The US Department of Education recently rescinded the 2011 Dear Colleague Letter citing concerns about the lack of due process for accused students.  The results of this study suggest that campuses are actually prioritizing due process in their implementation of campus sexual assault reforms more than other priorities.  Respondents also feel, overall, that reforms have improved how their campus is handling sexual assault.  Future research should identify both the kinds of reforms that have happened and the effectiveness of reforms in order to ensure that policies are evidence-based.