As the Association of American Universities prepares to launch its second sexual assault on college campuses survey next year, Attorney General Brad Schimel held a response training on the issue at UW-La Crosse Monday.
Back in 2015, the initial AAU survey, one of the first of its kind, found that over one in four female students on the UW-Madison campus reported nonconsensual sexual encounters, overwhelmingly with fellow male students.
“On college campuses, student safety is a shared responsibility between the campus and surrounding community,” Schimel said. “When a victim of sexual assault comes forward, the campus and the community officials must be able to work together to support the survivor and provide the justice survivors deserve.”
The intention of the training was to better prepare city, community and campus leaders to address reports of sexual assault and develop methods to effectively respond.
Due to the widespread success and attention of the first survey, which heard from 150,000 students across 27 campuses, the AAU announced another will be launched in early 2019, with UW-Madison set to participate again.
“To better protect our students and serve the public good, AAU member universities are continuing their efforts to prevent sexual assault and misconduct,” AAU President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement. “Our universities are using research to inform campus policies and programs and the data collected at the institutional-level will help university leaders create new policies and improve existing programs to fit unique student and institutional needs.”
