A sexual assault survey students will receive in their inboxes over winter break will launch the next step in a campaign aiming to improve how the campus perceives and prevents sexual violence.
A focus group through the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Campaign created the survey. The group is composed of representatives from Associated Student of Madison University Affairs Committee, Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment and the School of Public Health.
The survey will ask questions ranging from how students identify concepts such as rape culture to assess their familiarity with policies surrounding sexual assault, said outgoing University Affairs Committee Chair Kayla Van Cleave. The final goal, she said, is to “identify the perception of what students have experienced on campus as well as the perception of what services are available.”
Van Cleave said the campaign’s response to the data will likely be education to target knowledge deficits, which might include artwork to tackle emotions surrounding sexual assault. In addition, the campaign may push for prevention measures such as self-defense classes.
Four University of Wisconsin-Madison students spearheaded SAPR in response to what they perceived as injustices in treatment of students both in the Wisconsin system and nationwide.
“When we started to realize there was something wrong, we said to ourselves, we could do something,” group member Catie Rutledge said.
The students took the idea to ASM, where representatives voted to pursue the campaign.
UW-Madison’s campaign overlaps with the work of the UW System student organization United Council, which targets Wisconsin Chapter 17, a policy that dictates disciplinary procedures for non-academic issues including sexual assault. Some have criticized it for creating an overly complicated process of convicting students of sexual assault.
Although the campaign originally considered addressing the policy, Van Cleave said there is a chance Chapter 17 may change in the near future. At the moment, she said, SAPR plans to focus on creating less intensive changes, which may include looking at other university policies.
As a whole, Van Cleave said SAPR is not created in response to a specific issue, but an uncertainty about how students perceive sexual assault.
“It’s more just a general unknown, general silence around sexual assaults that needs to be delved into,” Van Cleave said.
