In October 2016, Kenyon faculty and staff members were invited to participate in an anonymous survey regarding the campus climate and sexual assault. Of the 767 employees invited to participate in the Sexual Assault Campus Climate Survey, 359 completed the survey for a 46.8 percent response rate.
The intention of the survey was to better understand faculty and staff perceptions of Kenyon’s climate concerning unwanted sexual contact and sexual misconduct, how Kenyon addresses and responds to sexual assault, and whether and how often employees have experienced sexual misconduct and relationship violence while working. The College partnered with Harvey Mudd College to conduct the survey to ensure anonymity.
“Kenyon is committed to fostering a tolerant, respectful culture. This survey is one more step in our continual work to address the challenge of sexual misconduct at Kenyon,” President Sean Decatur said.
The results of this survey, as well as a Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) survey completed by students in 2015 and again this January, will help the College improve understanding of campus culture. This will help the College better educate and train faculty, staff and students on Title IX policies and practices.
“The Title IX Advisory Committee, composed of student representatives as well as a representative from each College division, will use this survey in collaboration with the results from other surveys to make recommendations to enhance and improve Title IX policy, education efforts and training,” said Civil Rights and Title IX Coordinator Samantha Hughes.
The data suggest that employees generally feel safe on campus. 95 percent of survey respondents strongly agreed or agreed that they feel safe on Kenyon’s campus. And 98.3 percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that faculty and staff are genuinely concerned about students’ welfare. These numbers speak to the strength of Kenyon’s close community.
In the study, 55.2 percent of faculty and staff who responded to questions said their colleagues were very likely or likely to intervene if they heard a supervisor or senior colleague making inappropriate or sexual comments or saw them making inappropriate gestures. 84.9 percent of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that campus officials would protect the safety of a person reporting a sexual assault to an official at Kenyon. These data are reminders that Kenyon has work to do in prevention and education regarding its Title IX policies and practices, which apply to employees as well as students.
The survey results pose a challenge that is not unique but is more sensitive than that posed by most Kenyon surveys. Kenyon’s goal in reporting the results of the survey is to balance transparency and privacy so that data can inform policy and education while carefully protecting individual respondents. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of the survey, some data were combined or not published to maintain anonymity.
View the results of the survey (PDF).
To learn more about Kenyon’s policies regarding sexual misconduct and available resources, visit kenyon.edu/titleix, or contact Civil Rights and Title IX Coordinator Samantha Hughes at 740-427-5820 or hughess@kenyon.edu.
For questions on the survey, its implementation and resulting data, contact Director of Institutional Research Erika Farfan at farfane@kenyon.edu or 740-427-5571.