University officials are assessing sexual assault response and prevention on campus.
Student affairs officials sent an email to the campus community April 1 with a link to a sexual respect survey and information about its purpose. The survey closes May 3.
“April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and OCU is conducting an anonymous survey of our students to assess their experiences,” the email read.
The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, according to the email. Students who complete the survey may enter themselves in a drawing for a $100 OCU bookstore gift card.
Officials have distributed the survey annually since 2014, said Joey Croslin, vice president for human resources and Title IX coordinator.
“It’s a long-term effort to try to raise awareness of sexual assault,” she said. “It’s a community effort to try to eradicate those types of behaviors.”
Officials want to ensure they are meeting students’ needs for sexual assault awareness, Croslin said.
“We try to assess the prevalence of sexual assault on our campus in an effort to ensure that we’re providing appropriate prevention, programming and education,” she said.
Croslin said the survey was made to be sensitive to those who may have experienced sexual assault.
“We make sure to provide resources within the survey so that if people who are taking the survey need to connect with resources or make a report, they can do that,” she said.
OCU’s survey was modeled off of a survey conducted by MIT, Croslin said. The results will be compared to previous years to determine trends and help update programming and training, Croslin said.
“We look at that every year to make sure it’s still going to meet our needs,” she said.
Students should take the survey to share their perspectives and experiences, Croslin said.
“I hope that all students will participate, and not just students who have experienced some type of sexual assault, so that we can better assess what the climate is and what our students’ attitudes and behaviors are around these issues,” she said.
Sabrina Bartley, psychology freshman, said the survey was thorough, covered a variety of situations students might face and was sensitive about the issue.
“The trigger warnings were good and informative,” she said.
Bartley said she supports that university officials are assessing the campus climate.
“I think it’s very important that OCU is having a survey like this so that we can better understand the environment of our university and gauge how welcoming and understanding we are to survivors, as well as to gauge how educated we are on sexual assault and similar matters,” she said.
Gabriela Bastidas, design and production freshman, said she was disappointed with the survey.
“Instead of an interrogation, which was what the survey felt like, student affairs should have given more questions concerning how OKCU itself could improve its response to sexual assault,” she said.
Bastidas said she appreciated the trigger warnings, but felt some sections were too in-depth.
“I do feel that certain sections were unnecessarily detailed and invasive,” she said. “It also would have been more useful to focus on feedback regarding what the students feel the university is doing right and wrong.”
Taylor Downey, religion sophomore and Title IX program coordinator, said the survey includes questions about an individual’s personal experience with assault or how an individual might react in a situation involving sexual assault. The questions also address how each gender would react to a situation and how alcohol impacts sexual assault, she said.
“I hope it will make students aware of their own actions and make them a little more confident to stand up if they see something,” she said.
Officials also will be able to add more sexual assault awareness and prevention programming because there is a new campus civil rights investigator, Downey said.
“I’m looking forward to what’s to come next year,” she said.
Kristi Pendleton was hired as the new civil rights investigator and filled in the Title IX investigator position after Remy Barnett resigned in February. Pendleton said her new position includes investigating all areas protected under the non-discrimination policy in addition to investigating Title IX cases.
“It is more inclusive than just looking at the Title IX investigation piece,” Pendleton said.
She said she wants students to feel safe at the university and take the non-discrimination policy seriously.
“I want students to know who I am and know that I am approachable,” she said.
The OCU community has a strong awareness of sexual assault but can always improve, Downey said.
“The fact that we still have Title IX cases means there’s still work to be done and however good our community is now about standing out, speaking out against assault, we can always be better,” she said.
Students with questions about the survey may email Kelly Williams, director for institutional research for the university, at kwilliams@okcu.edu.
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