By JACK ARMSTRONG News Editor
This coming Monday, Feb. 2, a randomly selected group of Western Oregon’s students will be surveyed via email concerning sexual misconduct on campus.
The survey is being conducted by the student affairs office at Western as a part of a school and nationwide effort to increase overall awareness and reporting of sexual assault and harassment on college campuses.
Student affairs representative Tina Fuchs hopes that the survey will give the university a better picture of the campus climate in regards to sexual safety of students. The information gathered by the survey is also intended to help local law enforcement and campus public safety protect students from being victim of sexual crimes.
According to the student handbook, sexual misconduct is defined as “non-consensual sexual contact of any kind, the attempt to have non-consensual sexual contact or the threat of such contact. Sexual contact shall be considered non-consensual if no clear consent is freely given.”
Western’s campus is experiencing a rise in reports of sexual misconduct, but Fuchs says that much of this escalation is not directly tied to more crimes occurring on campus. Much of the increase is due to the new systems on campus for reporting the crimes.
Anonymous Report Forms provided by programs such as Abby’s House and Green Dot in combination with extended awareness of mental health services available at the Student Health and Counseling Center
have all lead to more incidents being reported.
The survey is limited to a random selection of students, but Fuchs said students are already
inundated with email surveys from other groups on campus.
Students who do not receive the survey but have experienced sexual violence or intimidation of any kind are strongly encouraged to seek university support in reporting the crimes.
Fuchs stressed that Western Oregon is committed to providing a safe learning environment and eradicating sexual misconduct on campus. Every student is a part of the solution.
