USU Seeks Student, Employee Input with Sexual Misconduct Surveys

Utah State University’s third “campus climate” survey on sexual misconduct for students opened today, along with its first survey of this kind for employees. Both surveys will run through April 22, and students and employees at all USU campuses are encouraged to participate.

The surveys are intended to help university administration better understand student and employee knowledge, perspectives and experiences related to sex-based discrimination and sexual misconduct, which USU policy defines as including sexual harassment, sexual assault, relationship violence and sex-based stalking.

“Data collected in past student surveys has helped us create education campaigns like the ‘I Ask’ consent video campaign, which featured USU students talking about consent, respect and healthy relationships,” said Emmalee Fishburn, a senior prevention specialist with USU’s Office of Equity.

“Since we haven’t conducted this kind of survey with our entire employee population before, we don’t know what kinds of sexual misconduct experiences employees may be having. We look forward to implementing similar education campaigns using data collected in the employee survey.”

The student survey has been conducted every other year since 2017. The information gathered has helped USU:

• Create bystander intervention trainings and education campaigns about consent.
• Modify prevention education for students at Statewide Campuses.
• Identify specific areas where the university community needs more prevention training.

The student survey will include new questions for individuals who have interacted with USU’s Office of Equity, as well as questions to assess how the university can better respond to sexual misconduct behaviors. The employee survey has a unique section to assess workplace incivility behaviors.

Additional questions in this year’s surveys are aimed at learning more about the specific kinds of experiences students and employees are having, as well as learning more about their experiences with sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination.

USU students are encouraged to take the survey at survey.usu.edu. The employee survey is at survey.usu.edu/employees. Each survey will take approximately 15-30 minutes to complete, and responses are anonymous. As an incentive, anyone who completes a survey can enter a drawing to win an Amazon or USU Campus Stores gift card.

Students or employees who would like mental or emotional support while taking this survey can visit USU’s Sexual Respect—Creating a Campus Culture of Respect page for information about university resources like the Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information (SAAVI) office.

The sexual misconduct survey is open April 1-22. To learn more about previous student sexual misconduct surveys and resulting university initiatives, visit usu.edu/sexual-respect/survey.