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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
WEDNESDAYS • Sept. 23, 2015
INSIDE What is the true cost of incarceration? - 2 Student uncovers family ties to slavery - 5 Getting excited about the papal visit - 9 President pushes for criminal reform- 12
Richmond & Hampton Roads
LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE
More than 1 in 5 female undergrads at top schools suffer intimate attacks
More than 20 percent of female undergraduates at an array of prominent universities said this year they were victims of sexual assault and misconduct, echoing findings elsewhere, according to one of the largest studies ever of college sexual violence. The survey from the Association of American Universities drew responses from 150,000 students at 27 schools, including most of the Ivy League. Researchers acknowledged the possibility of an overstated victimization rate, as there was evidence that hundreds of thousands of students who ignored the electronic questionnaire were less likely to have suffered an assault. But the results add to growing indications that sexual assault is disturbingly commonplace at colleges and universities, especially among undergraduates living on their own for the first time. Though colleges already are on high alert to the problem — in part because of a White House task force formed last year to combat it — the survey findings underscore the seriousness and breadth of sexual assault’s impact, and how difficult it will be to curb it. The AAU survey provides a wealth Lyra Bartell, right, of Richmond, hugs her friend, Irene Burgoa, grey top, in front of the undergraduate of insights about the prevalence of admissions building at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, last November. The door of the building specific types of assault at a crosssection of public and private research is littered with notes relating to sexual assault allegations. WIRE PHOTO universities; among them was the stark finding that 11 percent of female “Their participation in this and other climate surveys is an important part of undergraduates said they experienced incidents of penetration that fit the their efforts to combat sexual assault.” criminal definitions for rape or sodomy, half of them saying it happened by The AAU’s findings are roughly consistent with a Washington Post-Kaiser force. Family Foundation national poll, published in June, that found one in five Others said they were victims of unwanted touching or kissing that could be young women who attended a residential college during a four-year span said defined as sexual battery. they were sexually assaulted. “The leaders of our universities are deeply concerned about the impact of Other recent studies also have found high victimization rates at these issues on their students,” Hunter Rawlings, the AAU’s president, said. (continued on page 2)