Rutgers University Conducting Pilot Survey That May Become a Model for Assessing Campus Sexual Assault

Included in the White House’s program to combat sexual assaults on college campuses is a plan for educational institutions to conduct a campus climate survey that will be used to determine the scope of the problem and to assess students’ perceptions of the institution’s response to incidents of sexual assault and misconduct. Such surveys may be mandated in planned federal legislation on campus sexual assault.

The School of Social Work at Rutgers University was chosen by the White House and the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Violence Against Women to create a survey and conduct a pilot study of its effectiveness. Students at Rutgers are currently being asked to take the iSPEAK survey online. Students can also take the survey at several campus locations. To encourage participation, students who take the survey are entered into a raffle where they could win cash prizes of up to $300.

Sarah McMahon, an assistant professor of social work and acting co-director of Center on Violence Against Women and Children at Rutgers and director of the survey project, stated that “we named it iSPEAK because it gives students a voice and a chance to be heard. We encourage all students to take the survey and share their experiences with us, so we are better able to provide the White House with feedback on the survey experience.”