White House Urges Sexual Assault Campus Climate Surveys: A Roundtable Discussion with Researchers and Policymakers

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

Decades of research has documented that sexual assault is a pervasive problem on college campuses. Recently, this issue has received a great deal of attention at the federal level. Indeed, just last week one of the key recommendations from the White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault included a proposal that would require universities to conduct campus climate surveys related to sexual assault. The purpose of this roundtable will be to facilitate a discussion about the challenges to and utility of campus climate surveys and implications of this potential federal mandate for criminology researchers and practitioners. Roundtable panelists include a professor of psychology and justice studies who has been involved in conducting campus climate surveys for the past few decades, a professor of psychology who has been involved in developing measures of campus community readiness to address sexual assault, and two professors of law with combined expertise in campus sexual assault, and Title IX, and prosecuting sexual assault cases. Facilitated discussion will include (but is not limited to) the history of this type of work; researcher and practitioner collaborations; implications of federal mandates; and the critical role of researcher involvement.

Sub Unit

• Area VIII: Roundtables

Chair

• Katie M. Edwards, University of New Hampshire

Participants

• Ellen S. Cohn, University of New Hampshire

• Nancy Cantalupo, Georgetown University

• Amy Vorenberg, University of New Hampshire