Several female students at Ohio University revealed that they have experienced sexual assault in campus. This comes as part of the school's efforts to assess and reduce sexual misconduct.
The Columbus Dispatch reported that a female student at Ohio University has a 13 percent chance of being raped. The institution asked about 1,000 women to answer a sexual-assault survey and found that 13 percent, or about 132, female students admitted that they had been raped during their time in the school.
The survey is one of the ways that Ohio University is taking to assess the culture in campus. It is also expected to help reduce sexual misconduct.
The survey was emailed to all 19,459 students. However, only 2,200 clicked on the link to take it. Moreover, only 1,350, or 6.9 percent, were able to complete the survey.
Officials and sexual assault experts in Ohio University admitted that most respondents were white, female and straight. They also acknowledged that the participants' narrow demographic may limit the survey's accuracy but believe that it's a good place to start.
"It's a baseline, and hopefully they'll have higher response rates in the future," Katie Hanna, executive director of the Cleveland-based Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said.
Several Ohio colleges and universities have conducted "campus climate" surveys. This is part of the state Department of Higher Education's "Changing Campus Culture" initiative.
According to NBC4i.com, the female students reported experiencing some kind of sexual misconduct while at Ohio University. The misconduct ranges from unwelcome comments that contain inappropriate sexual content to rape.
74 percent reported that they experienced sexual harassment by other students. 280 graduate students responded to the survey and 8.2 percent reported that they were victimized by unwanted sexual advances by faculty and staff.
"Sexual misconduct does occur on our campus," Sara Trower, executive director of Ohio University's Office for Equity and Civil Rights Compliance said in the release. "This is a serious problem, and we are committed to finding the best ways to solve this problem for our community."
